Tunde Omolehin, Sokoto
The All Progressive Congress (APC) in Sokoto has described the state’s 2020 budget as a chain full of broken promises.
Chairman of the party, Isah Sadiq Acida, stated this when he addressed journalists in Sokoto, yesterday.
The governor recently signed into law the N202.4 billion 2020 budget tagged: ‘Budget of Sustainable Socio-Economic Development and Inclusiveness.’
The APC, however, described the passage of the bill into law as a non-event to most citizens.
Acida alleged that the governor was in the habit of making promises without fulfilling them. He said the 2020 budget was another of such promise.
The party wondered why the N169.184 billion budget of 2019 was swept under the carpet at the 2020 budget presentation. It also questioned the governor on how many capital and ongoing projects in the 2019 budget had been completed.
“Most of the 2019 capital projects have not commenced as at December 2019,” Acida said.
He listed some of the projects to include the renovation of Sultan Abubakar III Airport access road at N548 million; additional structures, road network and children’s playground equipment at the International Conference Centre, Kasarawa, at N128 million; construction and equipping of new advanced diagnostic centre at N2.443 billion, among others.
“It is also disheartening to note that our civil servants have continued to bear the burden of being taxed to fund the running of education, while the huge budgetary allocation to education continues to remain unaccounted for,” Acida said.