Spread the love
By Yabagi Mohammed.
Despite the controversies and misconceptions in some quarters about his personality and role in the present administration, the Chief of Staff to the governor and Alhaji Yahaya Bello’s confidante, Hon Edward Onoja has come out to clear the air on the allegations, saying his hands, the governor’s and those of the governor’s appointees are clean.
In an exclusive no-hold-barred interview with our reporters at his Government House Office, Chief debunked every rumours and allegations of financial impropriety and financial sleaze to follow due process of reporting him by writing anti-graft agencies in the country with proofs.
Onoja, who laughed at imputations alleging his ownership of choice hotels and landed properties in parts of Abuja, Lokoja and other parts of the country, lampooned them for thinking him wanting to own such properties, saying as an individual with experience in the financial and the oil and gas sectors of the economy, it would be wrong of him to invest in areas that take long before breaking even.
“It is insulting to my intelligence and sensibility for anyone to think I could invest my resources in sectors such as Hotels and Real Estate where I would have to wait for at least 50 years before I begin to make profit. If I have money to invest, I would rather go back to oil and gas.”
He said the government of Alhaji Yahaya Bello was in Kogi State to bring about true change in all ramifications, saying that anyone who embezzles a penny, no matter how highly placed, would be shown the way out and prosecuted.
The Chief of Staff challenged those who would take over power from them to also probe them, saying they are prepared to leave the state better than they met it, and called on critics to look for something more constructive to critique government about.
He re-echoed the commitment of the present government to recover every penny stolen from the state would be recovered in due course, saying the commission of inquiry set up by governor Yahaya Bello is out to ensure that the patrimony of the state cornered are taken back to serve the state.
To him, gone are the days when commissioners and other government appointees steal state funds to build business empires, revealing a sad situation in the past, where a state government appointee stole funds and used it to build a hotel that was commissioned by a sitting governor.
Spread the love
