…Exposes N5.6b Loans Procured By Immediate Past Administration
By Adeniyi Adedeji, Ilorin
Directors of Personnel Management, DPMs, of the 16 local government areas of Kwara State, currently under probe by a government panel have denied a loss of N300 million in their councils.
The state government had set up a Panel of Inquiry, headed by retired Justice Mathew Adewara, to look into an alleged diversion of N300 million monthly from local government funds in the state
The governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, had penultimate week inaugurated the panel to investigate allegations that his administration was diverting N300 million local government funds every month.
At its sitting on Thursday, the panel was told by the DPMs and their accountants from Asa, Ilorin East, Ilorin South, and Ilorin West local government areas that there were no records of deductions of money respectively, from their allocations from May, 2019 till date.
They had been holding sway in their respective council areas following the suspension of the erstwhile chairmen of the local council.
The panel of inquiry had been investigating the officials in respect of their payrolls, bank accounts, bank statements, statutory allocation papers, schedules of local government internally generated revenues, and cash books.
The DPM of Asa Local Government Area, Abdullah Haruna, on his part told the panel that he was not aware of any diversion of funds meant for his local government, saying, “No such record exists to the best of his knowledge.”
His words, “I don’t know anything about N300 million. From my side, I don’t know anything about any such thing.”
His Ilorin East Local Government Area counterpart, Oyebami Gabriel, also denied knowledge of any N300 million being allegedly diverted from his local government funds, saying, “I don’t know anything about it at all. All the accrued allocations to my local government do come.”
