With less than two months to the end of his eight-year reign, the All Progressives Congress on Thursday accused the Niger State Governor, Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, of mismanaging over N1 trillion out of the funds that accrued to the state.
Speaking to journalists at a press conference in Minna, the Chairman of the party in Niger State, Engr. Mohammed Imam, said Aliyu has derailed and mismanaged funds that would have changed the face of the state.
Imam said: “We have all the records of how he has been spending.
“I am just being modest even to say N1 trillion because in the past eight years.
“He has spent over N1 trillion.
“If you go to the website of the Federal Ministry of Finance, if they have been keeping records, you will see the facts there, but there are nothing to show for.
“If someone is spending over N1 billion in a month, it is a lot of money.
“It will take me eight years to spend N1 billion because if this amount was judiciously utilised, it could have changed the face of Niger State.
“I tell you, since I was born, if I was spending N1 million monthly, I won’t have been able to spend up to N1 billion.
“It is a lot of money.”
The APC chairman further stated: “The desperation of the Peoples Democratic Party and indeed that of Governor Aliyu have reached a deplorable level that the governor has resorted to cheap blackmail and outright lies against the governorship candidate of the APC (Abubakar Sani Bello).
“In a recent meeting, ostensibly convened to brief the Directorate staff of Local Government Ministry, Aliyu said our candidate resigned from his cabinet because he (Aliyu) declined to accede to unmerited request for financial reimbursement.
“The truth is that our candidate left his cabinet after few months stint because of the governor’s derailed goal initiated in his manifesto.”
Imam also said the PDP is gripped with fear of imminent defeat and has devised sinister plans to coerce security agencies to arrest some of its members.
According to him: “It is an open secret that the ruling party planned with security agencies to arrest some of our party members and unleash wholesome intimidation on our supporters before and during elections.
“The recent unwarranted arrest of some stakeholders in Kacha, Edati, Munya, Lavun, Bida, Mokwa and other places are all dressed-rehearsals.”
Imam however called on all members of the APC to undertake a fasting and praying section for a peaceful election.