The Chief of Staff, to the Kaduna State Governor, Mohammed Sani Kila has denied to have been accosted by the management of a hotel for refusing to pay outstanding bills.
The denial followed a report alleging that the Chief of Staff had slept in a hotel for weeks without paying the bills.
A statement from the office of the COS and signed by Ibrahim Aliyu Giwa described the report as false, malicious, and puerile.
“For clarity, we won’t have dignified the purveyors of the thus patently false and malicious story with any response, stressing this puerile story was not only false but also misleading and mischievous.
” The story was intended to impugn and smear the character, integrity, and reputation of the Chief of Staff.
” To bolster and lend credence to the half-truths and outright lies against the Chief of Staff, it was maliciously reported that he boasted of his willingness to take drastic measures against the hotel and management, including a possible retraction of the story over request for payment of outstanding bills he was alleged to have incurred.
” For emphasis, it is pertinent at this juncture to state that the chief of staff has neither stayed nor slept in the hotel as insinuated in the mischievous story.
“The Chief of Staff resides in his house in Kaduna, noting the hotel was secured for temporary accommodation of the newly appointed members of staff before the processing of the payment of their accommodation allowances. It is trite to state that this was a statutory right of the first twenty-eight (28) days for public servants and the hotel management is familiar with government procedures of processing payment and patiently pursuing their claims.
Adding, ” The mischief maker, cashing in on a chance of knowledge of this transaction was only a meddlesome interloper. His effort to create mischief and make a mountain out of a molehill has hit the concrete wall of truth.
“There was no doubt the author deliberately set out to mislead, misinform, and discredit the effort of the Chief of Staff to pursue the open and transparent governance policy of HE Governor Uba Sani”.
The statement therefore called on members of the public to disregard and discountenance such outright fabricated story.
News Editor