The Kwara State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called the state governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to explain to the people how and why he misappropriated N6 billion of the state funds as contained in the audit query raised by the State Auditor General,
In a statement signed by the Publicity Secretary, Mr. Tunde Ashaolu, the PDP said it was surprising that instead of responding to the audit query, some manipulations began in which the auditor general was intimidated to reverse himself and records concerning the funds were destroyed.
“The Governor Spent N6bn from 2021 to 2022, most of which were not properly receipted, and fake documents from fictitious companies were discovered across government offices to cover up the obvious misuse of funds. With impunity, he was doing whatever appealed to him because he has every institution of the state wrapped around his finger, and State Executive Council meetings where some of these funds and projects were supposed to be approved do not hold.
“Audit queries were raised on several ministries and parastatals, and it was found that the MDAs do not know about projects that pertain to their ministries. We shall soon send documents and other details to the anti-graft agencies accordingly.
“We vividly remember the drama that was staged at the office of the state Auditor General, an office that should be independent by the provision of the law, but the foul play can’t be ignored with the semblance of executive intimidation or manipulation.
“The Auditor-General after auditing the state 2020 account between the month of last April to June personally raised a red flag to some financial irregularities in the spendings of the Governor’s Office, Government House and eight other Ministries, Departments or Agencies.
The respected Auditor General on 30th September 2021, raised questions on some missing receipts of transactions in those government departments, running into N6.2billion. In a curious turn of events a few hours after making the allegation, the Auditor General changed the narrative, indicating each of the indicted Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.
“They must have taken Kwarans for fools because there are only two explanations for this scenario, either the Auditor General is incompetent or the state is currently perpetuating the biggest executive heist in its history. It is therefore no surprise that none of the TIC chairmen can boast of a single project in their respective council all because the state Governor has usurped the duties of the local government councils.
“For emphasis, this Government has an inflow of close to N400bn from (FAAC, IGR, Grants, Loans/ Bonds, and Refunds for jobs done by previous administrations) in three years, is it commensurate to what is on ground presently?
“Those are the real questions to be attended to, we are interested in what is happening in Kwara now. If there are infractions in the past, the best step to be taken is to approach the court and prosecute those found wanton and not play around with cheap propaganda”, the party stated.
The PDP added that the recent needless noise being made by the Abdulrazaq administration on the illegal attachment of Kwara State
property Shonga Farms instead of simply challenging the action in court was just a mere diversionary tactic.
“The intentional misinformation on ownership of Shonga Farm is a very disappointing one and it has been made worse by a pointless press conference organized by the State government which is nothing short of a waste of time and scarce resources of the state.
“It is a cynical gimmick concocted at diverting people’s attention away from the real issues at hand, most importantly the maladministration and mismanagement of resources that have become the hallmark of the Kwara State government under the clueless Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq.
“The issues concerning Shonga were very clear. If the incumbent government has enough evidence that makes the past administration complicit or culpable, it can approach the court rather than make unnecessary noise. The government should also join issues with AMCON in court. AMCON is doing what they are doing because they have seen Kwara State under Abdulrazaq as a soft target. The corporation has the option of attaching the properties of four banks that are shareholders in the Shonga Farms.
“The Governor can make better use of the energy expended on chasing shadows, by giving a detailed explanation on its lackluster performance, despite having amassed close to N400bn in three years, most of which were squandered on mysterious white elephant projects, in his futile hunt for glory.
“He can explain the comedy of errors playing out at Osi in Ekiti Local Government Area. The saddest part of the ugly development is that the Ministry of Health is trying to insult the intelligence of Kwarans in its statement claiming the accusation is “the handiwork of detractors”, for goodness sake the video is glaring for all to see.
“This shouldn’t be strange, at least not to people following the series of events in Kwara state and the present government penchant for blaming its predecessors at every given opportunity. The obsession of the state governor with past administrations would not have been worrisome if he is doing better than what we had in the past. On the contrary, things are getting worse.
“Sadly, the standard in the state has dipped as a state. We should not expect much from someone whose academic qualification remains shrouded in mystery. The question we ought to be asking ourselves now is, “does he even have the capacity for the office? “.
