Nasko to Niger gov: Account for N500bn allocation

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Niger State, Umar Nasko, has accused the All Progressives Congress-led administration in the state of spending N500bn in the last three years without anything to show for it.

Nasko, in an interview with our correspondent, accused the state governor, Abubakar Bello, of collecting the sum in form of federal allocations and grants but could not point to a single project worth N5bn in the state.

Nasko lamented that despite the huge allocations, the Bello administration still had a debt profile of N100bn.

The governorship candidate stated that while hospitals, schools and other infrastructural projects were begging for attention in the state, the state government expended about N2bn on building a fence around government house, a project he said had no direct bearing on the people.

Nasko also asked the Bello administration to account for over N50bn bailout and Paris Club refund, which he alleged had gone into private pockets.

He lamented the deplorable condition of roads in the state, wondering why the state government had yet to fix the 84-kilometre Minna-Bida road and the 94-kilometre Minna-Suleja road, which he said had claimed many lives in recent times.

When contacted on Friday to respond to Nasko’s allegations, the state Commissioner for Information, Danjuma Salau, referred our correspondent to the state Commissioner for Finance (Zakari Abubakar), who was not available to comment on the matter as of the time of filing this report.

However, Salau said the state government had intervened in constructing the federal road from Minna-Suleja, while contract for the reconstruction of the Minna-Bida road had been awarded.

He said it was the rain that stopped work on the projects, adding, “Now that the rains have subsided, work will start again.”Punch