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From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
The Kebbi State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Nasir Idris’s Media Aide, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, have expressed divergent views on the current administration’s accountability and transparency in the last year.
While the PDP criticized the All Progressives Congress (APC) government in the state for a lack of accountability and transparency, Chief Press Secretary to the Kebbi State Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, insisted that his boss has always followed due process before awarding contracts to construction firms.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the party in the state, Hon. Garba Liman, while briefing newsmen in Birnin Kebbi at the party’s secretariat, noted that despite the huge amount of federal allocations accrued to the state with IGR, the current administration has not performed credibly.
According to him, “Today, as we reflect on the one year of stewardship of the APC Administration in Kebbi State, the story is almost the same despite the huge amount of money garnered from various sources, such as the Monthly Statutory Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), Palliatives Support Fund, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), International Grants and other Interventions running into Hundreds of Billions of Naira within the year under review.
“As a Critical Stakeholder in Leadership and Governance in the State, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) boasting 11 Elected Officers at the State and National Assemblies is an important voice for the opposition that should be advancing the cause of Justice, fair play, accountability, open governance and transparency in the State.
“Following this firm premise, it is imperative to stress that within the period under review, the Kebbi State Government has received over N97,181,578,760. 81K from FAAC (OAGF 2024), N5 Billion worth of Palliatives, and in 2023 over N9 Billion from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) (NBS 2023), in addition to Hundreds of Millions from Development Partners.
“Similarly, the 21 Local Government Councils have so far received a combined sum of N77,950,692,202.63K from May 2023 to May 2024 (OAGF 2024), added to an unspecified amount of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from the respective Local Government Areas.
“But, regrettably, there is no tangible record of performance on the ground that is commensurate with the amounts at both the State and Local Government levels.
“The PDP is justifiably displeased with the style of Governance, especially around the ongoing flamboyant spending spree by the State Governor and some officeholders in the State.
“In a rural State like ours with so many lacks and lags manifesting as inadequate and poor quality of drinking water in towns and villages, low literacy level, poor hygiene, environmental challenges, rising unemployment, and destitution, poor healthcare indices, nonavailability of qualified manpower at Local and State levels, poor quality of school infrastructural facilities, and high prevalence of poverty, among others, the Government has still chosen to embark on an unprecedented expensive lifestyle capable of drying off the coffers of the State; a situation that will be both unfortunate and unjustifiable.”
In his reaction, the Chief Press Secretary to the Kebbi State Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Idris, who described all the allegations of the PDP as baseless, noted that all the activities and contracts awarded to construction firms passed due processes.
According to him, “I can tell you that all contracts, government businesses carried out under the leadership of the Governor, Dr Nasir Idris, passed through due processes.
“For your information, the Kebbi State House of Assembly approved all these contracts being executed across the state and the Due Process office also affirmed the projects before they were given out.
“All these allegations by the PDP are baseless. Some of them are looking for a way to join the APC and we have told them to follow due process. They cannot join the APC through the back door. So, if they don’t have anything to do, they should go and rest. This Government of Dr. Nasir Idris is a people’s government and our people are happy about the developmental projects going on across the state.”
