Niger State House of Assembly, on Tuesday, accused the State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani of spending a whooping sum of N126 billion meant for capital projects in 2019 without anything to show for it.

The assembly said all the projects the state government claimed to have embarked upon in 2019 have brought no value to the people.

The Legislators expressed their reservations at the floor of the house while discussing the 2020 appropriation brought before them by the Governor, during their first plenary sitting for 2020.

The member representing Borgu Constituency (APC), Honorable Mohammed Abba Bala, who led the deliberation said that despite the over N126 billion approved for capital expenditure in the 2019 budget, “there was nothing to show for it in the local government areas across the state.”

According to him, “a lot of money has been spent as claimed by the Executive but the people did not get the value for the said money.

“N126 billion was attained as capital expenditure in 2019 and looking at projects across the state in every local government, it leaves a lot to criticize. With that amount, even if each local government gets N5 million worth of projects, the story we would have been telling here would have been different.

“A lot of money was said to have been spent on roads and transport, but no work was done,” he queried.

According to him, “Take for example, every part of the roads that money was said to have been spent, the Minna-Suleja Road and the Minna-Bida Road, the money spent does not commemorate with the work done. The roads are still extremely bad.

“If a lot of money was spent as claimed here, I think there is no value for that money.

“Niger state has become one of the most backward states, the states that we fall in the same category have left us and they are in the next level. Niger state is not yet ready to move to the next level, I do not know why.”

Bala therefore urged the government to look into ways of improving the Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) in the state by having a concrete arrangement spelled out.

Also contributing, member representing Suleja Constituency (APC), Honorable Shuaibu Iya stated that a lot needs to be done, adding that “if the Executive declares a state of emergency on education, health, information and lands, and housing, it will not be a wrong move”.

He stated that “these sectors need a lot of interventions and the money purportedly claimed to have been used in these sectors has not shown any reflections that such monies have been spent”.

Also reacting, the Member representing Bosso Constituency, Honorable Malik Madaki Bosso berated the government for taking years to complete some of the uncompleted projects across the state.

He also lamented on the attitude of the government in bringing reversed budgets after the budget has been passed and signed into law urging his colleagues to be focused and stick to whatever will be passed as the 2020 budget.

It was at this point that the Speaker, Honorable Abdullahi Bawa Wuse shifted the debate to next legislative sitting as deliberation on the budget continues. (The Sun)

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