Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the 2019 general elections in Zamfara state, Alhaji Sani Abdulahi Shinkafi, has called for the investigation of former governor of the state, Abdulaziz Yari, over alleged N21 billion rural electrification scam.
Shinkafi in a petition dated July 1, 2019, had asked the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate the former governor over allegations of misappropriating, diversion and stealing of over N251billion belonging to Zamfara state whilst he held sway as the governor.
He alleged that the 14 Local government councils in the state were coerced into coughing out about N1,553,00,000,00 as custom/import duties for the electrification project in 87 towns and the contract was never executed.
The contract according to Shinkafi was originally awarded to Alliance Trading Company Limited belonging to Alhaji Abba Aleiro a brother of Senator Adamu Aleiro former Governor of Kebbi State at the cost of N5,807,410.52 but was later variated to a whopping N21,289,011,944.80.
The rural electrification contract, he said was to be financed by the state government and the 14 Local Government in the state and the monies was deducted from the local governments and the Governor Yari approved the payments to the contractor on March 27, 2017, and nothing was on ground to show for the huge sums of money allegedly expended on the project.
According to him, “I had called on the commission to investigate, prosecute and possibly convict former Governor of Zamfara state, Abdulaziz Yari, over the misappropriation, diversion, siphoning and financial recklessness of N251billion as alleged by the Transition Committee Chairman headed by the immediate past Deputy Governor of the Zamfara state, Malam Ibrahim Wakkala.”
The committee chairman alleged that the total liabilities discovered by the committee stands at a whopping N251.951.849.482.50.
The governorship candidate stated that a breakdown of the committee’s finding showed that the Yari-led administration left liabilities from ongoing projects to the tune N151,190,477,572.02.
The governorship candidate said the investigation has become expedient following the claims by Yari that his administration left no debt or liability for the new administration under Bello Mattawalle.
“I therefore demand that the commission investigate all the contract documents, books of account, sash books, bank statements of commercial banks, loans, and advances, Local and international loans incomes and expenditures.
“All monies received from the Federal Allocation Accounts Committee (FAAC) and local government joint accounts, UBEC, SDG, federal feeding funds, VAT, ecological and stabilisation funds, two trenches of bailout funds, two trenches of Paris and London clubs refunds, TetFunds, excess crude oil funds, contracts awarded for the past eight years of the Yari administration, MSME funds, Rice Anchor borrowers credit schemes funds, among others.”
