Katsina governor calls Niger Delta Avengers 'criminals'

The Governor of Katsina State, Alhaji Aminu Masari yesterday faulted the agitation of the Niger Delta Avengers and rated them as criminals.

He said he suspected that the Avengers might have been part of a threat by some Nigerians to make the country ungovernable, if a particular candidate did not win the 2015 presidential election.

He said it was possible for the nation to survive without oil.


He also said about N73billion was missing from the state coffers between 2007 and 2015 without anyone accepting responsibility.

He said the state had handed over some documents to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as part of the ongoing probe of the looting of the state.

He said he was not investigating his predecessor, Alhaji Ibrahim Shema, contrary to insinuations in some quarters.

He said out of all the contracts awarded by his predecessor in eight years, only one bordering on a N1.7billion drainage for Katsina metropolis was being looked into.

Masari, who spoke with newsmen in Abuja, at a point soliloquized, “what are they avenging?

He said: “As people, we must survive and live. With the crisis in the Niger Delta, we can wake up and see that not a dollar is coming from oil. Are we going to die? It is impossible. Let us start looking inward. We did it before, we can do it now.

“I believe, I still believe and I’m still convinced that when we do the right thing, not only in Katsina State, but across the 36 states, we will survive the storm and there will be no more dependence on any one commodity.

“Any single commodity you depend on, when the price crashes, you will feel the impact. I think your friends outside Nigeria should be very lucky. If you go to Angola, you can’t see effect of the low price because they don’t totally depend on oil.

“For those of us who are able to go to Saudi Arabia, we see these things. Almost 80 per cent of the capital projects have stopped. It is not only in Nigeria.

“But in our own case, coupled with when the prices start to pick up to about $40, then we have the criminals calling themselves Avengers. Avenging what?

“They said before election that if a particular candidate did not win, they would make Nigeria ungovernable. So what is coming now is not new, but Nigeria will survive it. There are countries without oil. Has Japan oil? Do Malaysia, Singapore, India have oil? Are they not surviving or thriving?

“If there is determined leadership, these things are doable. Most of the problems confronting us as a state are beyond politics.”

Masari disclosed that about N73billion was missing from the state coffers between 2007 and 2015 without anyone accepting responsibility.

He clarified that the state was not investigating his predecessor, Alhaji Shema, contrary to insinuations in some quarters.

He said the state was only tracing the N73billion withdrawn mostly in cash from the treasury by some government officials without any project done.

He said: “About N73billion was missing from the state treasury. The way it happened in Katsina, I won’t say it was criminal, it was too clever. They withdrew this money in cash and sometimes they went to dump part of it in empty houses without knowing those who came to clear the funds.

“None of the government officials involved has officially accepted that the money was missing. We have empanelled a commission of inquiry under the Commission of Inquiry Act to ascertain who were the recipients of these looted funds.

“The EFCC also came, we gave them some documents. So, there is an allegation of missing N73billion and we have created an opportunity for state officers involved to clarify. We cannot be fairer than that.”

Responding to a question, Masari said he was not probing his predecessor, Alhaji Shema.

He added: “We are not really investigating our predecessor. What happened is that they handed over their handover notes; we also helped them in the transition committee. The transition committee made some findings. Some money that came into government coffers went out of government coffers. These funds didn’t go into any project or any service of the government. We are asking where is the money (N73b)?

“If you are investigating government, certainly contractors will be involved? Is there any contractor that has been invited in Katsina State to explain what he has done on a particular project over the pricing of a particular project but we did not do that.

“What we are saying is this amount of money left government coffers and ended with some people. All we are saying is these people who collected this money should come and tell the people where the money is.

“I think all the money we are asking about is over N73 billion. So they have the right to interpret anything, but the fact of the matter is that we are not probing the work they did.

“What we are asking for is we have seen the money (N73billion) that came in and went out, where is that money? If there is any project they did with the money, let us see it. If there are certain percentages of work they did with the money, let us see. That’s all we are saying.”

The governor said out of all the contracts awarded by Shema, only one bordering on a N1.9billion drainage for Katsina Metropolis that was being looked into.

He said the contract was about the management of ecological funds from the Federal Government.

He said: “The only contract that we asked of was the one given for drainage in Katsina State. The contract was given at N1.99 billion and the contractor collected 90 per cent of the payment. He has collected over N1.7 billion.

“He said he had done the job with the best material. We got an independent person to do an assessment of the job. We said he should be as generous as possible but he valued the contractor’s maximum work at N700 million

“The contractor has abandoned the site. The money given to him was not covered by any bank guarantee or insurance guarantee. It was just given to him. We said, if you cannot complete the work as designed, this money was collected from the Ecological Fund account in Abuja, return it.

“There are so many petitions from concerned individuals in Katsina even before we assumed office about that particular contract.

“This is the only contract during Shema’s administration that we are looking at, nothing else. Why? There was a design produced and presented here which formed the basis for the Federal Government to give money to the state from the Ecological Fund and the same amount was given to a different contractor. He did not do the job. He collected the money and disappeared. If you cannot complete the job, send the money that was given to you”.

from Nigeria News. Your Nigerian Online News Source: Nigerianeye.com http://ift.tt/2ah31JC
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