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Kogi and Yahaya Bello’s rising indebtedness
When he was sworn in as the fourth civilian governor of Kogi State on January 27, 2016, Alhaji Yahaya Bello came into power with mass followership and lots of sympathizers, but today he no longer enjoys that support, no thanks to his style of governance.
Things took a dramatic turn for the worse for the 27-year-old state in 2015 when Alhaji Abubakar Audu, the controversial candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who was on the verge of winning the gubernatorial elections, suddenly dropped dead.
Ordinarily, his running mate, Honourable James Faleke should have been asked to step in since it was a joint ticket. But the APC thought otherwise, it superimposed a then 40-year-old businessman, Yahaya Bello on the state.
While the governor has continued to blame political opponents for the many woes befalling the state, National Daily learnt that aside from the N20 billion Paris refund, the state under Yahaya Bello obtained loans of at least N16 billion between May 2017 and January 2018.
The state, it was gathered also benefited from the bailout which the federal government gave to states.
In a classified document seen by National Daily, the state House of Assembly approved loans of N12 billion and another N1.2 billion on December 5, 2017. Still in December, the government borrowed a separate N1.2 billion.
Documents show that Kogi got another loan of N3.5 billion on January 31, 2018.
On March 20, 2018, the state treasury quarters issued an irrevocable standing payment order (ISPO) to a bank to make monthly deductions of N236, 892,000 from its Lokoja bank account over a period of 18 months, as repayment of the N3.5billion loan which was said to be used for budget implementation.
Critics have accused the current administration in the state of mismanaging resources, an allegation the governor and his aides have consistently denied.
Although part of the obtained loans were said to be for payment of salaries, Kogi state is still owing workers till date.
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