There is disquiet in Kogi State over alleged curious
withdrawal of N450million from the state’s
Ecological Fund account without due process.
withdrawal of N450million from the state’s
Ecological Fund account without due process.
The cash was withdrawn without the State Executive
Council in place as required by the enabling law.
The account was drawn about two and a half weeks
before the State Governorship Election Petition
Tribunal delivered judgement on the polls that
brought Governor Yahaya Bello to power.
But it was unclear last night what the cash was
used for.
Investigation showed the cash was drawn on May
16, 2016 from the Ecological Fund Account
Number: 1016623580 domiciled in UBA.
The account had a balance of N706, 102, 350.21
as at January 19, 2016.
A top source said: “The law governing the
Ecological Fund says it must be discussed and
approved by the State Executive Council.
“When the cash was withdrawn by government,
there was no State Executive Council in place.
“There was no emergency ecological challenge in
the state to have warranted such a huge spending.
“What is more baffling is that the cash was
accessed barely two and a half weeks before the
tribunal judgment on Kogi Governorship poll.
“The people of Kogi State want the state
government to account for the whereabouts of the
N450million.
“We want the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission to pay attention to the ongoing
developments before the state becomes bankrupt.”
Another source alleged that the state government is
becoming reckless with public funds.
The source said the state recently secured a loan of
N2.4bn froma commercial bank for Sustainable
Development Goals.
“They’ve started spending the money despite not
getting the required counterpart funding,” the source
said.
He added: “The state government tried to withdraw
another N450m from the infrastructure loan account
with a bank but they refused, citing CBN guidelines
that require transfers directly to contractors.
“Since then the state government has been using a
Lebanese contractor to draw down on the funds.
“There is an abuse of the system and no respect
for due process. For example, Agasa road in Okene
LGA was awarded to aconstruction firm without
following due process at a total cost N3.2billion
with about N1.2 billion mobilization fee already
paid.
“Apart from the construct ion of nine roundabouts at
a cost of N100m each, a Prado jeep cost the state
government N78million. The weekly cost of
cleaning Government House is N16m.”
