Kwara governor denies diverting LG funds, says ‘nothing to steal there’

AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Kwara state governor, has denied reports accusing him of diverting funds allocated to local governments (LG).

In a statement on Sunday, Bashir Adigun, special adviser to the governor on political communication, described the allegation published by a national newspaper as “sponsored fake news”.

He said the state’s LGs do not have enough funds that can be stolen as they still require support to pay salaries.

“The said publication is to say the least, sensational, mischievous, unethical and failed the test of balanced reporting,” the statement read.

“The report, broadcast by some radio stations and bloggers in the state, made a weighty allegation of diversion of funds by some state governments in its headline but nowhere in the body of the story is this found.”

Adigun noted that a judicial panel of enquiry set up to investigate similar allegations of fraud in 2020 had cleared the governor, affirming the transparency and accountability of the government.

“It should also be noted that there are no funds to steal at the local governments as their entire statutory allocation and IGR are not enough to pay their salaries 100%,” he added.

“The state government had to loan the local governments N110 million to enable them pay 100% salaries for the month of March.”

Commenting on the issue, the Kwara chapter of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) dissociated itself from the allegation against the governor.

Hotonou Rafiu, Kwara state NULGE secretary, said in a statement: “The union wishes to inform the general public that monthly allocation to all the 16 local government councils in Kwara state is being administered by local government representatives, and all the union leaders at local government level are also observers at the monthly allocation meeting.”

“NULGE Kwara state chapter wishes to inform the general public and most especially Kwarans that governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq is not stealing local government fund as captured in a report credited to our national president Alhaji Ambali Olatunji Akeem,” he said.

“We assert that neither the governor nor the state government is interfering in the management of local government funds.”

The union said its president, Ambali Akeem, to whom the report was credited has also refuted making the claim.