Godwin Tsa, Abuja
ThE governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Zamfara State, Alhaji Sani Shinkafi, has dragged the former governor of the state, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged N21 billion rural electrification scam.
In a petition to the anti- graft agency, Shinkafi further alleged that the 14 local government councils in the state were coerced into coughing out about N1,553,00,000,00 as custom/import duties for the electrification project in 87 towns in the state and the contract was never executed.
The contract, according to Shinkafi, was originally awarded to Alliance Trading Company Limited belonging to Alhaji Abba Aleiro, a brother of Senator Adamu Aleiro and former governor of Kebbi State at the cost of N5,807,410.52 but was later variated to N21,289,011,944.80.
The petitioner explained that the rural electrification contract was to be financed by the state government and the 14 local government areas in the state and the money was deducted from the local governments and Yari approved the payments to the contractor on March 27, 2017, and nothing is on ground to show for the huge amount allegedly expended on the project.
The petition, according to him, is based on findings by the transition committee chairman headed by the immediate past deputy governor of the state, Malam Ibrahim Wakkala.
According to the report by the chairman of the transition committee headed by Wakkala, the total liabilities discovered by the committee stands at N251.951.849.482.50 (two hundred and fifty one million eight hundred and forty nine thousand four hundred and eighty two Naira fifty kobo).
A breakdown of this will show that the Yari led administration left liabilities from ongoing projects to the tune N151,190,477,572.02 (one hundred and ninety million, four hundred and seventy two naira two kobo. Unremitted national housing fund deductions from salaries from 2016 to 2019 stands at N1,431,645,305,99 (one billion four hundred and thirty one million, six hundred and forty five thousand three hundred and five naira ninety nine kobo).
The committee allegedly made other discoveries.