‘Ex-gov Aliyu’s people withdrew N70b cash from govt account’

Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, on Friday lamented that the administration of his predecessor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu was characterized by fictitious projects, for which huge sums of money were allocated with nothing to show.

He said that a financial management committee set up by his administration, discovered a lot of discrepancies in the management of government resources, suggesting that government officials and private individuals were having a field day with the state government’s funds.

He said one of such discrepancies was discovered in the state and local government joint account where a massive fraud was perpetrated.

Bello, who said this during a state broadcast to mark his 100 days in office, explained, that there were several questionable transactions the former administration must account for.

Bello said, “We instituted a financial management committee to look at all major financial transactions of the state and local governments from May 2007 to May 2015. The committee has made substantial progress and the findings are quite revealing.

According to him, “A review of the operations of some of the major bank accounts of the state and the Local Government Joint Accounts Allocation Committee (JAAC) over the last eight years revealed some despicable patterns such as huge cash withdrawals by government officials, private individuals and PDP officials and members.

Read also: Probe of ex-gov Aliyu begins

“For example, an examination of only two bank accounts of Government House shows more than N70billion cash withdrawals by a few officials who must explain the purpose for which the withdrawals were made. The operation of the joint account was characterized by diversions and a misapplication of huge funds especially those paid to Ward Development Projects and 10km roads’ projects”.

He also lamented, that “For instance, out of the total sum of over N11billion paid to the accounts of Ward Development Projects, the relevant officials of the ministry of local government could not account for N2.86billion, while N613million was spent on ‘ghost’ vehicles and N675.50million was said to be lent to Ministry of Finance where the funds cannot be traced.”

He also stated, that most of the projects and programmes reportedly carried out by the last administration could not be traced, and that the PDP government functionaries and private individuals feasted on state resources for the eight years the party was in power in the state.

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