The Kaduna State House of Assembly on Tuesday went a step further than the recent lamentations of Governor Uba Sani about the crippling huge debt left by his predecessor anf set up a fact-finding committee tasked with examining financial transactions, loans, grants, and project execution in former Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s administration.
The Assembly in a plenary held on Tuesday, tasked the Committee to investigate El-Rufai’s top associates and senior counselor on investment, Jimi Lawal, former speakers of the 8th and 9th Assembly, commissioners of finance, former managing directors of Kaduna markets and commissioners of budget and planning, among others.
Governor Sani had lamented at. Town Hall meeting in Kaduna that the huge debt profile has rendered the state penniless as the huge debt burden, “eating deep into the State’s Federal Allocation.” According to him, his administration inherited $587 million, N85 billion, and 115 contractual liabilities from the administration of El- Rufai.
Sani had lamented that, due to the rise in the exchange rate, Kaduna state “is now paying back almost triple of what was borrowed” by the El-Rufai’s administration.
Governor Sani, who said seven out of the N10 billion Federal Allocation for the Kaduna State in March, was deducted to service the State’s debt, further lamented that the state was left with N3 billion, an amount which is not enough to pay salary, as the state’s monthly salary bill stands at N5.2 billion
The Committee is expected to probe financial dealings, loans and grants and other project implementation from 2015 – 2023.
