N50.8Billion Bailout Funds: APC Reacts To PDP’s Damning Allegation

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has denied allegations of a plot to connive with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)  in the release of bailout funds to the party controlled states.

This comes after the governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had alleged that the CBN is selective in the disbursement of the bailout to mainly to the APC controlled states at the determent of the PDP states.

However, reacting to the allegation, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC national publicity secretary advised the Kogi state government to go and sort itself out with the CBN, if indeed it wants to get the bailout funds, Daily Post reports.

READ ALSO: How APC Is Delaying Kogi State Bailout Funds- Idris Wada

According to Mohammed, the Kogi state government has to justify its request for N50.8 billion.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the APC national publicity secretary

He said: “This accusation is in line with the new-found propensity of the PDP to blame everyone but itself for the woes that have befallen the party in recent times.

“If the opposition party is not accusing the APC of colluding with the judiciary over the election petition cases, it is accusing the ruling party of colluding with the CBN over bailout funds,” adding that “This is sickening.

“Our investigations have revealed that the Kogi State Government has not been able to justify the over 50 billion Naira it is asking for as bailout funds. It is curious that the chunk of the funds which the state is asking for, over 40 billion Naira, is for the payment of the salaries of Local Government workers.

“The state is saying the backlog of salaries owed to these categories of workers dates back to 2011.

“How can that be, when Nigeria was not even broke in 2011? How can the state be owing Local Government workers when it has been collecting 2.2 billion Naira monthly in allocation for Local Governments, amounting to over 100 billion Naira in four years? What happened to the Local Government allocations collected by the state if it is owing LG workers since 2011?

“The figures and explanations tendered by the Kogi State Government to justify the request for 50.8 billion Naira in bailout funds are not tenable, especially because only 4.9 billion Naira of the amount is for the payment of workers in the state civil service.

“Nigerians should bear in mind that the bailout funds are not for anything beyond the payment of workers’ salaries. The onus is therefore on the Kogi State Government to justify its request for 50.8 billion Naira, and to assure the CBN that the state is not seeing the funds as slush money. It is the failure to do just that, rather than any so-called political interference, that has denied the state government of accessing the funds so far.

“Therefore, it does not make sense for anyone to accuse the ruling party or an agency of the same government of frustrating the release of the funds. Kogi State has no one but itself to blame for the quagmire in which it has found itself over the bailout funds.”

READ ALSO: Kogi Governorship Election: INEC Releases 22 Candidates

The PDP governors in a statement issued on Friday, November 6, and signed by the coordinator of the Forum, Osaro Onaiwu, had alleged that CBN is selective in the disbursement of the bailout to mainly to the APC controlled states at the determent of the PDP states.

They accused the CBN for allowing itself to be used by the APC to dictate who should get the bailout wondering why Kogi state has not been granted the fund even when it has fulfilled all the requirements.

The PDP coordinator advised the PDP to separate itself from politics and from the control of APC if it does not want to create political and financial crises in the country.

The post N50.8Billion Bailout Funds: APC Reacts To PDP’s Damning Allegation appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read on NAIJ.COM.