By Bayo Alabira
Dutse
Jigawa state Governor, Alhaji Sule Lamido, has signed into law the 2015 Appropriation Budget, indicating the end of his two terms as the state chief executive.
Signing the document yesterday at the Conference Hall of the Government House, Dutse, before the stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Lamido said though his administration had signed the budget, yet it would not be the one to execute it fully.
He added that it was the intention of his administration not to leave any Kobo in the treasury or liabilities for the in-coming government, but certain factors made it impossible to achieve that.
The out-going governor explained: “Because of our commitment to build an airport for the state, due to the promise made by President Good luck Jonathan when he was in the state sometime for campaign saying that his government would construct a Cargo Airport in each of the geo-political zones, I promptly embarked on the project which gulped the sum of N17 billon.”
He, however, said the federal government was able to pay the state N5.8 billion, remaining N11 million which is yet to be settled, urging the new government to do everything possible to pursue the government of Buhari to pay the state back.
Lamido revealed that had the federal government settled the debt, he would have completed some of the major projects he embarked upon.
He called on all the PDP supporters to see the incoming government as a government for all Jigawa indigenes and, therefore, support it “since it is going to work for the collective interest of the people of the state.”