Shehu Sani presses for recovery of public funds stolen, says discovery vindicates his long-held view
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Former Senator Shehu Sani has urged the Kaduna State government to recover all funds allegedly stolen, misappropriated, or diverted under the watch of former Governor Nasir El-Rufai.
The Kaduna House of Assembly has accused El-Rufai and his aides of squandering N423 billion in eight years and asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate him.
El-Rufai denies the allegation.
The discovery was stated in the report of a committee the Assembly set up to investigate all finances, loans, and contracts when El-Rufai was in office.
Vindication of long-held view
Sani said the report vindicated his long-held opinion that there was massive mismanagement of funds by the previous administration.
“The Kaduna Assembly has done a good job. I wish to congratulate them,” he wrote in a post in X (Twitter).
“The next step is to ensure the recovery of our stolen money…
“For anyone who cared to go through that published report, I don’t know what ‘serving with integrity means’.
“Kaduna was a victim of two types of banditry; the one in our forests and the one in the Government House.
“They left behind estates and malls for their children and left behind a mountain of debt for the children of the poor.
“For eight years, I stood alone telling the people of Kaduna State and the country how our state was systematically looted…
“The people inside and outside the state were deceived with aesthetics and industrial-scale propaganda.
“They wrecked the economy of the state, … destroyed the lives and livelihoods of millions of people and used religion to divide our state.
“Many politicians in the state were silenced out of fear of arrest, attacks by thugs or having their properties confiscated or demolished. I refused to be silenced.
“The Kaduna Assembly report is a vindication.”
Assembly mandates Uba Sani to refer El-Rufai to security agencies for probe
El-Rufai has described the report that indicted him as “jaundiced”.
But the state Assembly has mandated Governor Uba Sani to refer him and other alleged looters to the security agencies for investigation and prosecution.
Probe Committee Chairman and Deputy Speaker Henry Danjuma presented the report at plenary on Wednesday.
The report alleged most of the loans obtained by the El-Rufai administration were not used for the purposes for which they were secured and due process was not followed in some cases.
Speaker Yusuf Liman said the financial activities of the previous administration left the state with huge liabilities. The report was adopted by the Assembly and its recommendations were forwarded to Uba Sani for immediate action.
The lawmakers alleged, among others, that
- Humongous withdrawals of cash in naira and dollars from state coffers had no supporting records of utilisation.
- El-Rufa connived with commissioners and heads of parastatals to defraud the state by issuing directives to the Kaduna Public Procurement Agency (KADPPA) to circumvent due process in payments to contractors.
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