By Muhammad Ibrahim
Kaduna (Nigeria) – Kaduna State All Progressive Congress (APC) Transition Committee has concluded arrangement to drag the outgoing state Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over N2.7billion SURE-P funds diversion in the state.
This came barely 24 hours after the State Governor-elect, Malam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai vowed to probe anyone culpable in the SURE-P funds diversion in the state.
This was contained in a letter signed by the Chairman of APC Transition committee, Balarabe Abbas Lawal and made available to newsmen in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria.
The letter was addressed to the EFCC Chairman by the transition committee titled ‘The attempt to misappropriate SURE-P Funds in Kaduna State’, ”
According to the letter Yero has been putting the legislature under tremendous pressure to approve his utilisation of 50% of the Sure-P funds for a road project, while the 23 local government councils would share the balance.
The transition committee in the letter wanted the EFCC to stop Governor Yero led government from what it described as last minute looting of public assets.
The committee accused the outgoing State Government of taking elaborate steps to legitimise the misappropriation of N2.744 billion Local Government Sure-P funds,
The statement reads “I write to bring to your attention the elaborate steps being taken by the outgoing Kaduna State Government to legitimise the misappropriation of N2.744 billion Local Government Sure-P funds, and to request that you exercise your responsibility of deterring crime by preventing this last-minute looting of public assets.
“The Kaduna State House of Assembly declined to appropriate the Sure-P funds in the 2015 budget, and promptly removed them from the budgets submitted by the 23 local government councils. The state legislators further resolved that the fate of the funds be left to the incoming administration.
“The outgoing governor, Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, however has been putting the legislature under tremendous pressure to approve his utilisation of 50% of the Sure-P funds for a road project, while the 23 local government councils would share the balance.
” Coming from a government whose tenure expires in less than two weeks, the intensity of the lobby for the money indicates a certain desperation that is clearly not in the public interest.
“I wish to therefore request that you urgently investigate whether the Sure-P funds are still intact, or if they have been spent without appropriation thus necessitating a belated approval from the House of Assembly to provide a ‘legal’ means of retiring the funds.
” If, as it is widely believed in the state, the monies have already been spent, it is crucial to determine the projects, the contractors and the procurement processes that facilitated such a deliberate hemorrhaging of public funds.” it read.
it could be recalled that El-Rufai was quoted saying,he was aware of desperate attempts to secure approval to spend N2.744 billion Sure-P funds by the outgoing state government.
“As governor-elect, it is my duty to caution every official involved in these last-minute deals that the incoming government will ensure that there are consequences for illegal conduct, breach of trust and stealing of public assets,” he said.
According to him, his government will certainly insist on accountability, and no one should be in any doubt about its resolve, be it the instigators of any impropriety or those who facilitated and executed it.