Zamfara to FG: Help prevail on Yari to release our N37b

THE Zamfara State government has appealed to the Federal Government, the international community and the security agencies, to intervene and help retrieve the sum of N37b from a former governor of the state, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, for the overall benefits of the people of the state.

 The state commissioner for finance Alhaji Garba Rabiu made this appeal while briefing newsmen on Tuesday. He said he was speaking on behalf of the Governor Bello Matawalle administration.

Rabiu said Yari’s administration spent N47b on federal roads across the state between 2011 and 2018 and was refunded by the federal government.

“In his handing over note, the former governor declared that the sum of N47.8b expended on rehabilitation and construction of federal roads was not reimbursed to the state up to the time he left office.

“But to our utmost dismay, when we wrote to the Federal Ministry of Works for the reimbursement of the said money, we discovered that the sum of N37b was paid to Yari,” said Rabiu.

Reacting to the allegation, a political associate and the Vice Chairman, Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, Alhaji Sani Gwamna, described the allegation as “laughable and shameful.”

Gwamna said, “The commissioner does not know his duty. If the said amount was diverted, the Zamfara State Government was supposed to report the issue to the EFCC for the recovery of the money.”

The state government should go to court if it was sure of its allegations, said Gwamma.