A Transition Committee set up by Gov. Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State has alleged that ex-Gov Abdulaziz Yari, misappropriated the sum of N251,951,849,482.50.
This was revealed to journalists on Monday by the Chairman of the Transition Committee and immediate past Deputy governor of the state, Mallam Ibrahim Wakkala.
Wakkla said: “My committee while trying to ascertain the liabilities left behind by the immediate past administration of Hon. Abdulaziz Yari, collected and went through the report submitted by a transition committee earlier set up by former Gov. Yari.
“We discovered from Yari’s committee that the sum of over N250 billion cannot be accounted for.
“This included liabilities from a total of 462 ongoing projects which stands at N151, 190,477,572.02 and unremitted National Housing Fund (NHF) and unpaid workers’ gratuity of N1, 431,645,305.99.
He said that the outgone administration, which released the sum of N2 billion for the payment of gratuity to retired workers only paid N400 million to retired Permanent Secretaries, while the remaining balance of N1.6 billion had remained unaccounted.
“We have not concluded our investigations because we know that many facts are still coming up”, he added.
Wakkala vowed that the committee would not hesitate to invite all the suspects to come an answer queries about their deeds including Yari.
“We must not leave any stone unturned even though I worked with the governor for eight years which does not prevent me from exposing corruption,” he said.
The committee head said findings would be submitted to the governor for more action.
Reacting to the allegations, Special Adviser to the former governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Dosara, described them as “baseless and do not hold water”.
Dosara who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on phone from Saudi Arabia, said, “please wait for my return very soon, I will come and give you the correct version of what is on ground.”
=DAILY POST