FG N1.2bn Donation: We Didn’t Receive A Dime – Nigerien Govt Insists

• Says only Zamfara State gave its soldiers Hilux vans

The Nigerien Government of President Mohamed Bazoum has categorically denied receiving N1.2 billion from President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

The denial pointedly contradicted claims by Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, who said the President Buhari-led government extended a 1.2 billion Naira gift to the Niger Republic on August 3, 2022.

But in what appeared like a counter statement, the Nigerien government declared that it was not true that the President Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria disbursed N1.2billion to it.

The Nigerien Minister of Defence, Alkassoum Indatou, who stated this on behalf of the President Bazoum-led administration in the Republic of Niger, said that this was in spite of the fact that the Nigeriens troops have continued to protect Nigerians from the attacks of armed bandits.

However, Indatou admitted that the Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle gifted the Maradi region of Niger Republic Hilux vans, adding that residents of Zamfara State rely on the Nigeriens soldiers for protection against bandits.

The Nigerien Minister of Defence said that this is clearly not the same thing as the Buhari regime donating N1.2billion as claimed by the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed.

In the words of Indatou, who spoke in French; “It was Zamfara State that gave five vehicles to the Maradi region, four of which have already been received. It is not the Federal Government of Nigeria as its Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed declared.

“The population of Zamfara, which is on the border with the Niger Republic, calls more on the Nigerien soldiers who respond to the minute than even those of their own country,” a top Nigerien official who translated the statement in French said.

Indatou further said that the prompt response of the Nigerien soldiers to Zamfara residents’ distress calls might have informed Governor Matawalle’s decision to donate the Hilux vehicles to the Niger Republic.

The President Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria in February 202, claimed that it contracted Kaura Motors Nigeria Limited, with Fidelity Bank account 4010638472, to purchase 10 Toyota Land Cruiser vehicles for the Niger Republic at the cost of N1.2 billion.

With the denial by the Nigerien government of the donation by Nigeria, it expected a new vista of controversy would be generated just as it may strain the existing relationship between the two neighbouring countries. – Sourced from The Peoples Gazette