Immediate past governor of Kogi State, Capt Idris Wada (Retd), has advised his successor, Governor Yahaya Bello, to face the daunting task of running the state and desist from sponsoring false propaganda against his person, describing Bello’s attitude as malicious and mischievous.
Governor Bello had through his chief of staff, Edward Onoja, and special adviser Media, Abdulmalik Abdukareem, in a recent television programme, accused Wada of non-payment of workers’ salaries for four months before he vacated office, not properly applying for bailout funds provided for states by the federal government and vandalisation of Government House property.
But Wada, in a statement by his media aide, Jacob Edi, called on Bello to desist from his strategy of diverting the attention of the people of Kogi State who are earnestly waiting to see what will become of his administration and focus on his responsibilities as the governor, rather than embarking on endless propaganda in an attempt to disparage his administration.
The statement described the allegation that Wada looted and vandalised government property even to the level of illegally removing stabilisers as not only laughable but satanic, and pointed out that in its haste to award contracts for illicit gains, the Bello-led administration was bereft of initiatives and must therefore demonise his predecessors in order to create imaginary needs.
“One of such is the on-going renovation of the Governor’s Office at the cost of over two billion naira. It is instructive that the building being renovated for the humongous amount was constructed in 2011 for less than the amount it is being renovated just five years later,” the statement read.
It further pointed out that those who know the former governor well will acclaim to his uncompromising devotion to truth, integrity and due process, and that his commitment to prudent management of the limited state resources should be more glaring to the people of Kogi as things stand today, adding that “Bello is simply playing the ostrich hiding under the charge of vandalisation to justify the wastage of scarce resources on a gyration.”
On bailout fund, the former governor clarified that he applied for and met all the conditions outlined following which the CBN publicised its approval of N50.8 billion to the state but however declined release of the funds for barbaric political chauvinism and allowed the people of the state to suffer untold hardship.
