N344b cash: Kogi APC stakeholders reject Bello for second term, petition Buhari

Stakeholders in the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kogi State have sent a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari against fielding Governor Yahaya Bello for second term in office.

 They said Bello has received about N344billion in the last 38 months he has been in charge of the state.

 They said the governor has been owing salaries, pensions and gratuities without any visible capital projects on ground anywhere in the state.

 They described Bello as non- performing and violent governor in the past three and a half years.

 The stakeholders accused the governor of wasteful and fraudulent use of funds.

 They made their position known in the petition signed by the Convener of the Kogi APC Stakeholders Forum, Sen. (Dr.) Alex Kadiri.

 The petition reads in part: “Governor Yahaya Bello was never elected by the good people of Kogi State.

 “The death of Abubakar Audu made it possible for Bello to be Kogi State Governor.

 “He has shown everyone that he lacks leadership abilities. He can’t fight for the rights and privileges of Kogi people.

 “We request you to step down your support for the candidature of Governor Yahaya Bello for the forthcoming election in Kogi State.

 “If the party fields him as a candidate, we are sure of losing the state to the opposition.”

 The stakeholders gave insights into how the governor allegedly mismanaged statutory allocations meant for the state.

 They said: “For the past 38 months including February 2019 Gov. Yahaya Bello has not paid full salaries to the workers of Kogi State, despite the fact that the state received full allocation from Federation Account as detailed below: Statutory allocation, Excess Crude and VAT(N132b); Internally Generated Revenue by the state(N51b);  total allocations to local governments(N111b).

 “Total funds received by the state and local governments: N294 billion. The other funds received by the state are as below: Bail Out (N20b); Paris Club refunds 1, 2, and 3 (N19b); and refunds for road construction by previous governments (N11b).

 “The governor had conducted multiple staff screening for both the state and the local governments. And from the Report of the screening, the Monthly wage bill (state, local governments and pensions) at the inception of the administration stood at N5.8 billion. After screening, this figure reduced to N4.4 Billion.

 “From table above, it is evidently clear that the total revenue received by the state Government was more than enough to settle all salaries, pensions and gratuities with huge balance remaining for overheads and capital projects.

 “It is very instructive to note that even without bailout and other funds received outside statutory allocation, Gov. Yahaya Bello could have still paid all salaries including pensions without conducting multiple screening and inflicting pains on Kogi State and Local Government workers. This must hurt APC at the polls.

 “Even after the screening, all salaries and pensions payments were paid using arbitrary percentages, thereby still owing workers huge outstanding salaries.”