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| Governor Yahaya Bello |
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.”
The stakeholders said they had tried to seek presidential and party interventions to call Bello to order without success.
They added: “We respectfully write to bring to your esteemed
attention, the following facts and issues associated with our party and
the governor of Kogi State.
“We had earlier, during the life of your administration petitioned against our governor, Yahaya Bello, on several occasions.
“The party, as a result, set up the Tony Momoh Committee to work on the issues in our petitions in Kogi State APC.
“The result of this committee’s work is kept secret in the cooler
without the party or the government addressing any of the issues to
date.
“Another committee was setup under the Chairmanship of General Garba.
We appeared before the committee, and made far reaching
recommendations, till this day, that report is still also kept secret
and under lock and key and no action taken by the party.
“Late last year, we were invited to another meeting with His
Excellency, the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. We are, again, waiting for
the outcome of that meeting.
“The Vice President prevailed on us to participate fully in the
elections slated for early this year with the promise that our
grievances were to be looked into, and addressed.
“In obedience and respect for the Vice President, we participated
fully in the just-concluded elections and ensured the party was
victorious in all the elections.
“However, we are today, back to where we were prior to the elections
without any response or actions on our discussions with the Vice
President.
“From the foregoing we will like to restate the issues that Governor
Yahaya Bello has traumatized, inflicted poverty and fear on our people.
“People who dare to raise their voice to complain or protest this
mistreatment have been summarily killed or intimidated to the extent
that a reign of terror is foisted on the people of the state.
“We feel strongly that the traumatised people of Kogi State and most especially the APC family have had enough of Yahaya Bello.
‘We feel very strongly that attempting to foist this non-performing
and violent Governor as candidate by the party and or the powers that
be, will be a great national disservice and will lead to the loss of the
state to the opposition in the forthcoming governorship election.
“The APC, of which you are the Leader, must have the courage to say
no to Yahaya Bello’s desire to remain Governor of Kogi State for history
will judge all of us for all our actions and inactions where and when
we had the authority and opportunity to effect a positive change in the
affairs of men.”
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