By Ojo Sola Olusegun
Kaduna
Kaduna state All Progressives Congress (APC) Transition Committee has written a petition to Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) against Kaduna state government’s request to spend N2.744 billion Subsidy Re-investment Programme (SURE-P) funds belonging to the 23 local government councils in the state.
Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero had written to the state Assembly seeking its approval to use 50 per cent of the LGs SURE-P fund to enable him complete road projects in the state.
The petition, which was signed by the Transition Committee Chairman, Malam Balarabe Abbas Lawal, among other things, prayed the EFFC to intervene in the allegation and stop the spending of the alleged sum by the governor.
Blueprint reports that 14 APC members in the state assembly recently raised alarm over the development.
The letter read in part: “I write to bring to your attention the elaborate steps being taken by the outgoing Kaduna State Government to legitimise the misappropriation of N2.744 billion Local Government Sure-P funds, and to request that you exercise your responsibility of deterring crime by preventing this last-minute looting of public assets.
“The Kaduna state House of Assembly declined to appropriate the Sure-P funds in the 2015 budget, and promptly removed them from the budgets submitted by the 23 local government councils. The state legislators further resolved that the fate of the funds be left to the incoming administration.
“The outgoing governor, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, however, has been putting the legislature under tremendous pressure to approve his utilisation of 50% of the Sure-P funds for a road project, while the 23 local government councils would share the balance. Coming from a government whose tenure expires in less than two weeks, the intensity of the lobby for the money indicates a certain desperation that is clearly not in the public interest.
“I wish to, therefore, request that you urgently investigate whether the Sure-P funds are still intact, or if they have been spent without appropriation thus necessitating a belated approval from the House of Assembly to provide a ‘legal’ means of retiring the funds.
Meanwhile, El-Rufai was quoted in a statement as saying: “I have been made aware of desperate attempts to secure approval to spend N2.744 billion Sure-P funds. Less than two weeks to its exit, the outgoing government of Kaduna State is seeking to pressure the outgoing House of Assembly to permit it to spend 50% of the money on the Kawo road project, while the 23 local government councils will share the balance.
“As governor-elect, it is my duty to caution every official involved in these last-minute deals that the incoming government will ensure that there are consequences for illegal conduct, breach of trust and stealing of public assets. Our government will certainly insist on accountability, and no one should be in any doubt about our resolve, be it the instigators of any impropriety or those who facilitated and executed it.”
