• Says cartel steals N5b from State IGR
BY VICTOR BUORO – The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has returned to the Kwara State government over N263,327,800 said to have been looted from its coffers by some unscrupulous public officers.
Zonal Head of the anti-graft Agency in Ilorin, Mr Isiaka Sharu, handed the money over to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq at a ceremony held in Ilorin, the State capital.
According to Sharu, the money was recovered from suspected treasury looters after being confronted with incontrovertible evidence by the EFCC.
The EFCC official also alleged that about N5 billion was stolen from the State’s Internal Revenue Service by those he described as ‘influential persons’ in the state.
“About N5 billion was allegedly siphoned from KWIRS and shared in the ratio of 30:70 by some notable individuals in the state through their cronies.
“We are working assiduously to help sanitise the civil service. We are keeping track on the activities of all political office holders and we would keep you posted in due course on any financial malfeasance against any appointee to enable you get rid of rot in the system”, Sharu assured the governor.
Speaking after receiving the recovered loot from EFCC, Governor AbdulRazaq expressed regrets that officials of the immediate past administration allegedly diverted N2 billion loan collected from the Federal Government for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) into private pockets.
AbdulRazaq said Kwara State was hard pressed because the Federal Government has been deducting N35 million from its monthly allocation to offset the loan that was grossly misappropriated by those who were responsible for its disbursement.
The governor said; “We are glad and excited that the money is coming in. Today, the EFCC handed over N260 million to us; the other day, the agency handed over N110 million to us. They (past government) said nobody stole money. We are glad to receive and collect the (stolen) money. It is a good feeling. The last time, there was a drop in the monthly allocation. This will be used to augment that.”
On how the money will be utilised, Governor AbdulRazaq said: “First of all, we are starting our budget on a positive balance sheet. This will also go into augmenting our budget; it is going into development. Some of it will go back into paying up the state government’s indebtedness to the Federal Government on small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs).”
Further explaining the source of the returned loot, the governor said; “The previous administration took a loan of N2 billion from the Federal Government on SMEs and nothing was accounted for. Everything was stolen, basically. Now, the Federal Government is deducting N35 million every month from the state allocation.
“So, part of this recovered money will be used to pay back the SMEs debts and part for social reinvestment programme. So, it is a win-win situation for us.”
