The El Rufai administration in Kaduna State has come under fire from the state’s House of Assembly, which accuses the former governor and various heads of offices and parastatals of widespread corruption and mismanagement. The Assembly claims that significant funds intended for developmental projects were misappropriated.
El-Rufai has dismissed these claims as a political witch-hunt and scandalous. However, in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, the Chairman of the House Committee On Information and NGOs in Kaduna State Assembly, Henry Zachariah has reiterated these accusations, claiming that only 40% of the projects tied to loans were completed by the El-Rufai administration.
Zachariah said, “Some of these monies collected for some of these projects were not judiciously used. Else, when you come to Kaduna state today, the monies they collected for this project, you could see that they only executed about 40% of these projects. They will paint them, bring social media and show the whole world they are working. But a larger percentage of these works are left undone.”
Lamenting the alleged misconduct of El-Rufai, Zachariah also mentioned that large loans were taken by the former governor of Kaduna from international banks intended for infrastructure projects and some of these loans were drawn without proper approvals.
He said, “He went to African Development Bank, collected a loan of $130 million to revamp the transportation in Kaduna state. Come to Kaduna state and show me what transport system was done. He used that slogan, collected this money and diverted it to other uses. He collected $62 million from Islamic Development Bank to boost education in Kaduna state. Well, they were able to build six secondary schools across the state. Outside that, what else do we have to show for the money? You can not claim to be a man of integrity while your action is saying otherwise. Besides, if you were responsible enough, you will not do actions or take actions that will mortgage the future of your people in a manner where they will barely survive.”
“Talking about integrity, do you know, when you check the records, you will see that immediately he was sworn in in 2019 for the second time, the eighth senate rejected that loan bid. Immediately he was sworn in in May 2019 for his second term in office, he drew down about $170 million from that loan in the world bank even before approval came from the National Assembly.
“Men of integrity don’t cut corners. You obtained this loan without formal approval because it was after covid in 2020, around June that the president resubmitted the loan bid to the National Assembly, then it was subsequently approved in 2021. But they have drawn down the money since 2019. He is not a man of integrity. These are well packed lies and deceit they sold out to the public to believe what they were doing but in the real sense of it, they were massively, recklessly misusing our funds.”
Speaking on El-Rufai’s claim that the accusations are a political witch hunt, Zachariah said, “It is always normal in Nigeria today that when people commit offenses and when you’re trying to ask them to come and account for their actions, they will easily just say it is political witch hunt.”
Melissa Enoch
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