Update: Buhari reinforcing Gov. Bello with N10.069bn financial aide one month to election

President Muhammadu Buhari has precipitated another phase of public discourse on his leadership of Nigeria and re-engineering the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the build u to the November 6 governorship election in Kogi State. President Buhari generated suspicion of probable reinforcement of Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State to strengthen his forte in the preparations for the governorship election next month with a request for Senate’s approval of N10.069 billion financial reimbursement to the Kogi State Government within one month to the governorship election in which Governor Bello is seeking re-election for a second term on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

President Buhari had written to the Senate requesting approval for the issuance of N10.069 billion Commissary Notes to the Kogi State Government.

The request generated disquiets from stakeholders in the polity who perceived President Buhari to be reinforcing Governor Yahaya Bello with the N10.069 billion Commissary Notes for Kogi State ruled by the APC one month to the November 16 governorship election in Kogi.  The stakeholders noted that Kogi State under the leadership Yahaya Bello has benefited from the various financial interventions, bailouts and Paris Club debt refunds from the federal government. For them, the President’s request for N10.069 billion in the build up to the November governorship election could suspiciously be attributed to strengthening the governor to ensure APC retains Kogi State in the governorship election; including  the re-ordered election in Kogi West senatorial declared by the Appeal Court and the tribunal.

Meanwhile, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, had read President Buhari’s N10.069 billion commissary notes request letter on the floor of the Senate.

The request was said to have been handed to the committee on local and foreign debts for consideration.

The President claimed that the fund is to refund to Kogi State for the federal projects the state government handled in the state. This deepened the suspicion as many stakeholders argued that Governor Bello has not completed any project in his first tenure in Kogi State. They challenged both President Buhari and Governor Bello to show Nigerians the projects the Kogi governor has completed in the past three and half years of his administration.