The governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello has asked top functionaries of the previous administration to return to the government some of the money they misappropriated.
In a statement by his chief press secretary, Dr. Ibraheem Dooba, the governor wants officials in the government of former Governor Babangida Aliyu to return N2.9 billion. “They took this loan on the eve of their departure. And as was customary with that administration, they did nothing with the money,” Dooba said.
“You can’t collect a loan on behalf of the people and share it among yourselves. That’s literally what they did. They simply raised a list and allocated money to those on the list. The office of the SSG for example, was given 600 million naira. What he would do with the money, the records did not say. Well, we want our money back. The money belongs to the people; the governor took an oath to protect the people and by the grace of God, that is what he’s going to do,” Dooba added.
The chief press secretary said the government of Abubakar Sani Bello didn’t come to office to witch-hunt or to focus on probing previous administrations, “but we can’t, in good conscience, accept this brazen theft of the people’s wealth.”
The press secretary also said the new state government has itemized programmes based on the needs of the people. “Abraham Maslow gave the world the Hierarchy of Needs, although some may fault some aspects of his thinking, we find that the situation in Niger State is as Maslow described at the bottom of his hierarchy. Our people need food, shelter, security, roads, water and so forth. For example, the governor wants to start with the provision of portable water in Niger State; and in that light, has visited our Water Board in Minna and a dam in Kontagora. In the coming weeks, we’ll provide water at predictable intervals to Nigerlites.
“On the problem of electricity, we have started an arrangement to rent a power plant from overseas to provide regular electricity before a permanent solution is fashioned,” Dooba said.
He also said that the Governor had requested zero pot-holes in Minna. “Further, Minna-Kataeregi road, Kontagora-Tegina, Minna-Suleja, Bakeko-Katcha, Kaffin-koro, Kuta-Sabon Gari and Maitumbi-Maikunkele roads among others, are receiving urgent attention. The contractors who abandoned some of the projects will be dragged back to complete what they started,” Dr. Dooba concluded.
