Zamfara state governor, Bello Matawalle has endorsed a 5-man commission of inquiry to probe alleged misappropriation of over N107 billion leveled against the immediate past administration of former Governor Abdulazeez Yari Abubakar.

A statement issued by Governor Matawalle’s spokesperson, Zailani Bappah, said the figure is “total sum of money discovered to have been misappropriated between 2011 and 2019.”

The decision to set up the commission was reached on Wednesday at a state executive council meeting and made public by the state’s deputy governor, Mahdi Aliyu Gusau.

“This is partly fallout of the final report of the Ahmad Zabarma committee constituted at the wake of this administration to find out the depth of engagement by the last administration in terms of public finances and procurement, which was equally submitted to the governor at the Government House,” the statement said.

According to the state government, the committee disclosed that the last administration might have squandered the finances of the state to the tune of over N107 billion, which could not be properly accounted for.

“For instance, the sum of N10 billion was discovered to have been paid to the state government from the federal government by e-payment, which also disappeared via e-payment within two days without any record of it in the appropriate books.

“Another N10 billion found to have been paid in two tranches was discovered to have landed in the accounts of two bureau de change companies in Kano, the committee disclosed. Other shoddy deals involved many contracts awarded and either not executed or partly executed.”

The state’s former commissioner of finance during the Yari administration, Mukhtar Idris, however, denied the state government’s allegations on the promissory notes transaction.

He said the former governor is not afraid of any investigation.