Ex Governor Aliyu Takes On Niger APC Government

Olabode Adaramola, Niger State.

Barely three weeks after the immediate past Governor of Niger State, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu raised the issue of $ 181 millions  Islamic Development Bank loan which he was said to have  facilitated for the dualization of Minna- Bida road, the former governor has again said he left N1.4 billion for the Minna international 5 Star -Hotel Project.

The money, according to him was left in what he called the ” Escro account” of the state.

The erstwhile governor stated this during an interactive session with newsmen on Tuesday in his country home, Tunga, Minna, the state capital, during which he also maintained that the vexed $181million  was secured during the twilight of his administration in the state.

He said the Ñ1.2 billion was left in the Escro account and was for the payment of the contractor when the job had reached a certain level.

“To my surprise the contractor was invited by this government and given the whole amount, after two months he ( contractor) disappeared from site and has not returned to finish the job

” Am I to be held responsible, the government that invited and paid the contractor should be asked to account for the money” former governor Aliyu declared.

Speaking further Dr.  Aliyu,  who marked his  64 years birthday on Tuesday,  insisted that he negotiated and secured the approval for the $181million  Industrial Development Bank IDB loan

“The facility is not only for the dualization of the Minna- Bida road, the other component of the loan was the construction of a Bilingual Language Centre in Minna, we presented five items before the IDB team, but  only two were picked

” I went to Jeddah to negotiate for the loan with some of my officials then, some of them are still part and parcel of this APC -led -government” Dr. Aliyu said,  asking the incumbent governor Abubakar Sani Bello to cross checked-  from these people.

He told the APC government that “the issue on the ground is not about EFCC or ICPC, let the government come out clean that it has not collected the money,”

Dr. Aliyu faulted the present approach of the government to the Minna- Bida road dualization project saying that the plan by government to dualize only a certain section of the road and make the rest single lane ” is not acceptable

“You cannot toll a single lane road it is morally wrong, our plan was to  dualize the road from Kpakungu to Bida and toll it at both ends, the developer was to collect its money in 25 years” he declared.

Though the former governor supported the repair to be carried out on some failed section of the road, he non the less caution the government against wasting public funds if the entire road will be dualize.

“They should set about doing the major project instead of playing politics with the issue”.

For the first time since leaving office Dr Aliyu commented on the crisis that plagued the state pension scheme in which his administration was said not to have accounted for about N6 billion being contribution by some workers.

He however distanced himself from the allegation,  saying that he had to borrow over N1 billion to settle pension arrears when he assumed office.