The All Progressives Congress (APC)
candidate in the November 21 Kogi State governorship elections, Prince
Abubakar Audu has cleared the air on the N11 billion he allegedly looted
as a governor of the State.
Audu who debunked the report of the loot
among other questions via a tweetChat with his followers on Thursday,
coordinated by his social media team headed by Philip Obin
(@PhilipObin), using the hashtag #AskAudu, said, “When I was in office
between 1999 – 2003, we received average monthly allocation of N350
million – about N16.8 billion for the entire four years of my tenure.
With these, we paid all salaries, we
built Kogi State University, Obajana Cement Factory (now owned and run
by Dangote Cement), Confluence Beach Hotel, Stella Obasanjo Library,
Paparanda Square, Government House (Lugard) House, Government Office,
secretariat, the banquet hall, started the confluence stadium and built
the Lokoja township stadium.
Others are the Federal Medical Centre
and equipped same with 25 state-of-art ambulances, NTA Kogi, Radio Kogi,
Kogi Graphics Newspaper, 75 rural electrification projects, the
presidential lodge, Governor’s lodge, Abuja, inter-state roads; We also
built the specialist eye centre, commissioner’s quarters, 200 housing
units, just to mention a few.
In 2002, the Federal Government
instituted a panel to evaluate and reward performance. Out of 12 awards
for the 36 state governors, I won seven. Now, how could all these have
been achieved?”
The former governor also alleged that
his outstanding performance became a threat to the then ruling PDP,
hence Kogi people were mobilised against him. He alleged that when they
failed to achieve their initial intention, he was dragged before some
anti-corruption agencies.
When the then ruling People’s Democratic
Party saw me as a threat, they started instigating Kogites against me,
and when the people couldn’t buy into that, having known the truth, they
orchestrated my arrest, which led to my being dragged before the ICPC,
CCB, CCT and EFCC.
"When all that failed, the then PDP led
Kogi State government took over and issued a white paper, banning me
from politics for 10 years. I proceeded to court, and the court ruled
that the Kogi government has no such right to ban me from politics.
"The Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, had also taken me to seven courts in total (four in
Kogi and three in Abuja). In each of these cases, they’ll always pull
out before judgment is passed and go back to frame up new figures; I was
first accused of stealing N1.5bn, then N4bn, then N8bn and finally
N11bn. It’s also on record that I was the most pursued politician by the
EFCC, as the PDP wanted my head at all cost – always during elections.
"And so I ask all Kogites and Nigerians,
how could my administration have achieved all we did with less than N6
billion, if N11 billion was missing? Again only the work I did in Kogi
State stands there today. The PDP government since I left office, has
received about N550 billion, without accounting for it.
”So the questions should be where have
these funds gone? Why are Kogites still languishing in abject poverty?
Why is Lokoja the dirtiest state capital in Nigeria? Why has EFCC been
mute?
"Clearly the PDP-led EFCC had a
different agenda. I leave these thoughts to my fellow Kogites to mull
over and ponder. The truth is out there for those who care to know but
my happiness is that all well-meaning Kogites know the truth and have
pledged to support me and the APC to victory ahead of the November 21
governorship election, as I promise to do even more, when we eventually
take up power,” he promised.
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