By 
The main opposition party, People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and the Kwara State Government on Tuesday traded words over the revenue generated and debt status of the state over the years.
The PDP chairman, Hon. Babatunde Mohammed in a press conference said the All Progressives Congress (APC) government in the state, led by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq performed below expectations, compared to the money that had come to the state from both the federation account as well as the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Hon. Babatunde said Kwara was increasing in revenue generation, and debt profile but shrinking in development.
In his words “Aside from the N10 billion inherited from the past administration which is enough for any serious-minded government to start on good footing, the KWIRS has remitted more than N134bn revenue to government coffers between 2019 and 2022.
“As of October 2022, the state had received over two hundred billion naira (N200bn) from the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC), adding this figure to about fifty-three billion loans (N53bn) the government accessed in her first year.
“It is so disappointing and unfortunate that despite all this cash inflow, Kwara’s debt profile which was around N30.2 billion as of March 2018 has been increased to around N110bn as of 30th September 2022, just three years of the administration.”
The party added that no commiserate project commissioned despite cash inflow.
“It is worrying that despite this huge cash inflow to the state, Kwarans could not see anything on the ground across the state that commiserate with the income and huge debt imposed on the state since 2019.”
Reacting to the allegation, the state government in a press statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary, Rafiu Ajakaye said the opposition party doomed to unprovoked falsehood, arrogance, said “a band of dishonest politicians who remain stuck in the past.
“The best way to know the real characters of the PDP is to interrogate their different statements on the same issue of how much they left in the coffers on May 29, 2019.
“On May 29, 2019, former Governor Abdulfatahi Ahmed said in his handover note read by the Head of Service that the administration left a total sums of N5 billion in the treasury which, according to them, was the tax refund from the Federal Government that the EFCC froze.
“Of course, the exact amount that came to Kwara State was actually N4.8bn as we have consistently mentioned.
“On January 20, 2023, as it desperately churned out lies, PDP’s chieftain and former commissioner for Finance Mr. Ademola Banu said in an interview in the New Telegraph that their administration left N8.5bn in the treasury.
“Today, October 10, 2023, at their press briefing, the PDP chairman Hon. Babatunde Mohammed said they actually left over N10 billion in the treasury. Which of these three conflicting figures is right? He, of course, conveniently omitted that their administration left a public debt of at least N100bn, including the dollar component.
“These mind-boggling inconsistencies and barefaced falsehood typify the character of Kwara PDP yesterday and today, and it is the reason Kwarans are so glad to have rejected them back-to-back in two electoral cycles.
“There is no surprise therefore that a party that keeps changing figures of its own regime in a barefaced show of dishonesty cannot truly represent the financial record of another administration, regardless of the fact that such records of finances are a click away on the state government’s official website where budget implementation reports are constantly uploaded and acknowledged to be very credible by different pro-transparency organisations.
“While it actually applied for N35bn bond and was adjudged healthy enough to get even more, the administration of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq actually accessed a total sums of N27.260bn in 2021. This fact is everywhere in the media. The projects for which the bond is being used for have been repeatedly reported in the media, and they include the long-commissioned 11.1km Osi-Obbo Aiyegunle road, the ready for commissioning garment factory, General Tunde Idiagbon Flyover, Sugar Film Factory, which has Nigeria’s first-ever sound stage, Innovation Hub, Visual Arts Centre, long commissioned Gbugbu International Market (Phase 1), Industrial Park Eiyenkorin (Phase 1), Ilesha Baruba and Osi campuses of the Kwara State University, Yebumot Adeta Oloje Road, 33km Ilesha Gwanara Road, Shea nut processing factory (Kaiama), rehabilitation of water works including Offa, Erin Ile, Asa Dam, and Afon, etc, and a couple of other township roads.
“A few of these projects are completed while many of them are ongoing and are steadily being funded through the bond as they hit different milestones. In a media exposure early 2022, the Governor said only N10bn of the N27.260bn had been spent on the ongoing projects and that the money was being disbursed to contractors handling the projects as they are certified due for next payment.
“It speaks to the ‘brilliance’ of Kwara PDP that they expected that the N17.260bn that was in the bank for ongoing projects in early 2022 which are expected to be paid for as they hit different stages is just lying there unused. But psychologists have rightly posited that depraved minds often see every other person in their own image after all, the PDP never executed a couple of the projects it listed on their bonds as far back as 2009, including the much-touted industrial park.
“Our own industrial park is under construction and can be seen by all at Eiyenkorin, not like their own nonexistent one that was fraudulently listed in their bond.” the statement read.
Comments