El-Rufai denies inheriting N8bn from Yero

Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, said over the weekend that past administration under former
Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero did not leave N8 billion when vacating office.

El-Rufai, who was reacting to the s ex-deputy governor, Nuhu Bajoga’s claims that his former boss left N8 billion in the state’s treasury, said what the present government met was only N228 million.

Addressing a news conference in Kaduna, el-Rufai’s special assistant on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, explained that former Governor Yero’s government actually left the state in deficit.

El-Rufai added that as a consequence of government’s conviction that the state is broke, it decided to cut costs and focus the state’s resources on priority areas.

He explained why the present government has restructured ministries and cut the number of political appointees, warning that the merchants of division, who thrive on reading sectional motives to policy decisions, would not deter his government from committing funds to building schools, hospitals and providing security in the state.

El-Rufai said: “I am here to dismiss claims by the former deputy governor of our state, Mr. Nuhu Audu Bajoga, that the last government left over N8 billion as working money in the accounts of Kaduna State government.

“Kaduna State government had N228,333,371.67 in its central account on 29 May 2015. This represents the working capital that could be spent. All other items in the bank balance are committed funds, and are not available to be spent by government.

“These include counterpart and reserve funds clearly earmarked for specific purposes such as MDGs, SUBEB, Sure- P and state pensions, and as such cannot be termed available funds by any responsible government.

“It is pretty disingenuous to infer that a state that is in obvious dire straits has robust finances, or delude to a conclusion that N8 billion on paper is available in reality.”

El-Rufai added that: “the Yero government that Bajoga served also incurred outstanding liabilities of N370m by May 2015; that effectively leaves the state in deficit as the working capital of slightly over N228m cannot cover the liability.”