Some Kogi State governorship aspirants under the Peoples Democratic Party have raised the alarm that the N30bn bailout that was released to Governor Yahaya Bello by the Federal Government could be diverted.
They alleged that the money would not be used for the payment of workers’ salaries but could be diverted for the governor’s re-election bid.
Speaking to journalists separately on Wednesday after collecting their expression of interest and nomination forms at the PDP secretariat, Wadata in Abuja, they called on the governor to use the money for the payment of salaries, adding that workers and people in the state had been languishing in poverty.
They said they would invest in human capital and infrastructural development as well as programmes that would create jobs and alleviate poverty in the state.
They lamented high insecurity, adding that it was imperative to improve on security of lives and property in the state.
The aspirants included Bayo Averehi, Mohammed Shaibu, Dr Victor Adoji, Bayo Agberedi and Air Vice Marshal Salia Atawodi (retd.).
Adoji said, “I remember a few months before Capt Idris Wada left office, he had applied for this same bailout of about N50bn. But the government of the day refused to release the money because they had envisioned that the money would be used for political purpose. But now, few months to the election, you are allowing the sitting governor to have N30bn. Of course, I do not see that money being used for the purpose for which it is being allotted in the first place. It is ill-timed, improper and immoral.”
Agberedi said, “A bailout given to the state before was not used for the purpose that it was meant for. So if you think that this one is to be used for the purpose, then you have to strip him of his immunity to make him to do that. I do not see this money being used to pay the salaries of the dying workers.”
Meanwhile, a PDP governorship aspirant from Bayelsa State, Mr. Tobin Igiri said marginalisation and unemployment were responsible for youth restiveness, militancy and vandalism of oil facilities in the Niger Delta.
He lamented the destruction of oil facilities in oil producing states.
Culled from Punch
