Account for N17bn bond, others, Kwara PDP challenges AbdulRaza

AbdulRahman-AbdulRazaq
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The Peoples Democratic Party in Kwara State has asked Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to account for the N17bn bond his administration got on behalf of the state which was allegedly kept in a secret bank account.

The main opposition party also urged the governor to stay in the state and face governance instead of gallivanting around the country as the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum.

However, the state government said that it had expended the funds on some projects that would soon be inaugurated for the people’s use.

Speaking on Tuesday in Ilorin at the inauguration of its ratified state executive members, the PDP Chairman, Alhaji Babatunde Mohammed, said the government took a N35bn bond to execute projects but failed to expend the money on the projects.

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“As of press time, the government is yet to update Kwarans on the situation with the N17bn outstanding from the N35bn loan which they claimed was kept in an undisclosed bank after using a certain amount for unreasonable petty projects which are not beneficial to Kwarans.

“It is so disappointing and unfortunate that despite all this cash inflow, Kwara’s debt profile which was around N30.2bn as of March 2018 has been increased to around N110bn as of 30th September 2022, just three years of the administration.”

Mohammed also told the government to account for the N134bn generated by the Kwara State Internal Revenue Service in the last three years and the over N200bn allocation the state got from the Federal Government.

“As of October 2022, the state had received over N200bn from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee. Adding this figure to about N53bn the government accessed in her first year, the N7.1bn UBEC grant, over N9bn grants for the health sector; summing all these together without the various undisclosed grants, and financial aids from foreign and local donor agencies, it is clear that Kwara State has received about N450bn in revenue between 2019 to 2022. If those undisclosed grants and foreign aids are uncovered and added, then, more than half a trillion naira have been accrued to the state since 2019.”

He said, “It is worrying that despite this huge cash inflow to the state, Kwarans could not see anything on the ground across the state that commiserate with the income and huge debt imposed on the state since 2019. For example, this is the only government that has broken a negative record that in almost five years, the Governor has not been able to commission a single infrastructural project that is fully state-funded from start to completion. This is the first time Kwarans will be witnessing such a calamity since 1999.

The PDP also advised the governor to stay in the state and face governance instead of going to Abuja on assignment as Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, adding that he should emulate the former governor of the state, Dr Bukola Saraki, who had held a similar position in the past without making governance in the state to suffer.

But the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mallam Rafiu Ajakaye, described the allegations by the PDP as frivolous, saying the funds being talked about had been expended on meaningful projects.

Ajakaye said, “While it actually applied for N35bn bond and was adjudged healthy enough to get even more, the administration of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq actually accessed total sums of N27.2bn in 2021. This fact is everywhere in the media. The projects for which the bond is being used have been repeatedly reported in the media, and they include the long-inaugurated 11.1km Osi-Obbo Aiyegunle Road, the ready-for-inauguration garment factory, General Tunde Idiagbon Flyover, Sugar Film Factory, which has Nigeria’s first-ever sound stage, Innovation Hub, Visual Arts Centre, long-inaugurated Gbugbu International Market (Phase 1), Industrial Park Eiyenkorin (Phase 1), Ilesha Baruba and Osi campuses of the Kwara State University, Yebumot Adeta Oloje Road, 33km Ilesha Gwanara Road, Shea Nut Processing Factory (Kaiama), rehabilitation of water works, including Offa, Erin Ile, Asa Dam, and Afon, etc, and a couple of other township roads.

“A few of these projects are completed while many of them are ongoing and are steadily being funded through the bond as they hit different milestones. In a media exposure in early 2022, the governor said only N10bn of the N27.2bn had been spent on the ongoing projects and that the money was being disbursed to contractors handling the projects as they are certified due for the next payment.

“It speaks to the ‘brilliance’ of Kwara PDP that they expected that the N17.2bn that was in the bank for ongoing projects in early 2022 — which are expected to be paid for as they hit different stages — is just lying there unused. But psychologists have rightly posited that depraved minds often see every other person in their own image — after all, the PDP never executed a couple of the projects it listed on their bonds as far back as 2009, including the much-touted industrial park. Our own industrial park is under construction and can be seen by all at Eiyenkorin, not like their own non-existent one that was fraudulently listed in their bond.”

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