Kogi Governor Yahaya Bello
In what makes nonsense of APC’s slogan of change, barely a week after he assumed office as governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello approved for himself and squandered N260 million as security votes, PREMIUM TIMES reported today.
According to the report, on Bello’s first day in office, the Permanent Secretary in the Government House, Ilemona John, initiated a memo titled, “Request For Security Fund”. In the memo, Bello was asked to approve N15 million as his security fund.Wham! He approved the payment of the fund two days later, on January 29.
Four days later the same Permanent Secretary raised another memo with a new request for security fund. This time, the amount was handsomely raised to N20 million. Again, the governor quickly approved.
As if this was not enough, in a very poor state, where most children go to bed on an empty stomach, John again raised another memo for the release of more security funds the following day, February 3, requesting Bello to “release of the sum of Five Million naira (N5, 000,000, 00) only for the replenishment of your Excellency’s security fund which has just been exhausted.” Approval was instantly granted.
They were not yet done. The permanent secretary who says he is a Reverend Pastor, returned with another request on the same day (February 3, 2016) asking Bello to release another “N20 million for the replenishment of his security fund which has just been exhausted.” Again there was on-the-spot approval.
Five days later, the Permanent Secretary once again put forward another memo explaining that Bello’s security fund has again been exhausted and begged approval for N100 million to be released to “replenish” it. The following day, the governor gave approval.
Like Oliver twist, few hours later on the same day (Feb. 9, 2016), John raised yet another memo informing the governor that the security fund he approved hours earlier has been exhausted in a matter of hours and that he needed to approve another N100 Million. As always, Bello quickly granted approval on the same day.
When contacted the spokesperson to the governor, Kingsley Fanwo confirmed this and said that the spending, mainly used in “renovating and furnishing the governor’s office”were necessary.
“It is public knowledge that Kogi State has been contending with serious security breach for the past 10 years,” he said.
“As a result of the location of the state as gateway to many states of the federation, the state drifted into a criminal hotbed.
“Also, years of gross maladministration and blinding embezzlement has left the youth bare, exposing them to all sorts of criminal activities to survive. Kogi became a haven of robbers and kidnappers.”
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