*PDP Alleges CBN Partisanship
On the occasion of this year’s Workers Day, Sunday May 1, 2016, Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, disclosed with much glee, the release of Workers Salaries Assistance Bailout Loan to Kogi state by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The governor in his address to workers in the state as part of the activities marking the May Day 2016 said, “The reality we met on ground at the CBN was that the previous application made on behalf of the State by the last administration was fraught with irregularities and shoddily done. In a word, it was so badly done it could never be approved. We had to start from scratch. We are glad to announce that our efforts have paid off.”
Governor Bello added, “This week, we received approval to draw down on the first tranche of our Bailout Funds from the Federal Government. This will amount to about N20bn.”
The money said to be about N50.8 billion is expected to be lodged in a nominated Zenith Bank account immediately after the May Day workers holiday.
Reacting, a group, Kogi Unity Group 2015, sympathetic to the governorship campaign of former Governor Idris Wada faulted what it described as “convoluted facts” contained in the governor’s May Day address to workers.
The state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a separate statements issued in Lokoja yesterday alleged that the body language of the CBN in the release of the bailout to Governor Bello had shown that it deliberately denied the last administration access to the loan to help the APC unseat Wada as Kogi State Governor.
Saying Governor Bello lied to Kogi workers when he alluded to the efforts of the last administration to access the loan as a shoddy job, KUG spokesman, Abdulraheem Ojonimi noted that “Bello himself knows it would have been roundly impossible for his administration as presently constituted, to achieve this milestone, less than three months in office.”
According to Ojonimi, ‘The creeping lack of depth in the administration, the worrisome level of inexperience, the suspect human resource quality and aggregate lack of temperament and aptitude for governance of the Bello administration, cannot sustain the appropriation of this hard-worn achievement by the PDP-led Wada administration.
“Bello in his address claimed that Kogi state staff strength was over bloated by 100 percent, as thousands of non-existent workers’ detected and yet he applied for the same amount of money Wada applied for as bailout. Who is fooling who?
“The governor was honest enough to admit in his address that the workers screening committee he set up is scheduled to conclude its work within the next one week after which he claimed only genuine workers will be on Kogi’s payroll, what then is the statistics of the workforce that was submitted to the CBN for a fresh application for bailout?”
The group congratulated Kogi workers for the eventual and final release of the bailout money which, according to Ojonimi, the erstwhile Governor Wada “worked assiduously to secure before he was programmed out of Government by the ruling party in partnership with the CBN”.
According to the group, “The release was long overdue. The workers and their long-suffering families will be the better for it. Kogi Unity Group 2015 lauds Capt Idris Wada for putting together a comprehensive request for the bailout which was denied him for political reasons. This group wishes to state that now that the much sought funds have been released, barely three months after his exit, the historic efforts of Capt Idris Wada in bringing succuor to his people, is worthy of note.
“With this release, most workers are worried about how Governor Yahaya Bello would utilize the funds. The Governor is just about 100days in office. However his style of governance is already clear. Since he has not appointed Commissioners, he does not have a state executive council. He also does not have a viable State House of Assembly as only five out of 25 members are in place.
Others are in Abuja challenging the illegal impeachment of the Speaker of the House of Assembly. In the absence of these two very vital institutions, Governor Bello rules the state like an emperor along with his Chief of Staff and a few other Special Advisers.
“To make matters worse, the civil service has been crippled. All Permanent Secretaries, Directors, Head of Accounts, DLGs and Cashiers have all been sent on indefinite leave. The tenure of elected Council Chairmen expire by mid May 2016. The Governor will certainly install a conjured contraption in the guise of a caretaker committee.
“With the basic structures and institutions of Government either crippled or absent Governor Bello will have a free rein to utilize this windfall in a manner of his choosing. As already established, profligacy is his stock in trade. In his 100 days in office, Governor Bello has not spent 30 days in Lokoja, the state capital.
He is either in Abuja or out of the country.
In Abuja, he shuns the recently renovated State Liaison Office in Asokoro, for a permanent penthouse suite at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel. In the same period, he has travelled not just once but several times to either London, China, Dubai or Saudi Arabia with a retinue of his buddies with the attendant cost, including estacode, to the impoverished state.
“Governor Bello in total disregard for extant laws continues to spend money without due process. The Governors approval ceiling is N50million, after which the State Exco approval is needed. This guideline is being flouted everyday.
Contracts in excess of N50million are being awarded without the tenders board or tendering process in place. All manner of misdemeanor is the stock in trade in today’s Kogi. Labours ability to champion its issues is being assaulted due to the discordant views in their ranks, occasioned by mistrust.
“Only recently, the Executive Council of APC in Kogi State passed a vote of no confidence on Governor Bello – their party’s flag bearer.
“The Governor is battling for his survival at the Kogi State Governorship Election Tribunal, in Abuja. He is pitched against Hon James Abiodun Faleke of the APC in one suit and Capt Idris Wada of the PDP in a second case.
“With all the aforementioned chaos, N50.8 billion has now been thrown into the mix. The is clearly a recipe for chaos in Kogi State unless appropriate institutions at the national level show more than a passing interest in what Bello does with the N50.8 billion.
If, indeed, the strong opposition to the release of the money last year was hinged on a possible diversion by Governor Wada for election purposes, the CBN should also note the myriad of problems besetting Kogi State today and ensure the money is properly disbursed to the workers.
Finally, “What mechanisms does the CBN intend to put in place to ensure that the Kogi bailout funds are used for the intended purpose and not diverted to other purposes as was done in other states? We demand that the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele should provide answers to these puzzle.”
In a further reaction, the state PDP spokesman, Bode Ogunmola referred to the correspondence between Kogi State Government and the CBN in the last quarter of 2015 and stated that the apex bank had no just reason not to have released the money last year.
“Political considerations held sway,” he reiterated, explaining that it was public knowledge that at that time Kogi State was a PDP state while the APC ruled the roost in all matters in Abuja, including the CBN. He cited the situation where the bank pressed for additional documentation, before the formal release of the lifeline, even though no other state which applied for the facility, was so asked at that time.
According to the PDP spokesperson, the CBN in September, last year, had demanded the following:
The total period covered by the Local Government Areas(LGAs)/ primary school teachers’ salary arrears claim;
The total LGA staff strength/primary school teachers for each of the local governments;
The report, if any, of a recent staff audit had been conducted to identify ghost workers;
Status of Biometric Verification Numbers (BVN) registration/compliance by Kogi State workers;
A copy of the last salary payroll for State, LGA staff and primary school teachers.
“The CBN must have been surprised to receive the State Government’s response to all the above within 48 hours. Yet the money was not released. All manners of pressure and lobby was mounted to secure the release but the paymasters were set not to release the money to Wada as a sure way of ensuring he loses the election.”, Ogunmola concluded.
