They want Borno’s N75bn savings, says MP
A desperate desire to lay hands on N75 billion in savings made by the Borno State Government and its 27 Local Government Areas is the reason why the clamour for the suspension of the state governor and State House of Assembly as part of emergency measures has failed to subside, a member of the National Assembly from the state told Daily Trust in Abuja yesterday.
He however insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized by the state government to speak. Only last week, Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark repeated the call for the governors of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states to be removed as part of emergency measures.
According to the lawmaker, some powerful political actors supported by some security chiefs have in the past year mounted sustained pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan to use the cover of emergency powers in three North Eastern states to suspend democratic structures.
While they argue that the measure will facilitate military operations against Boko Haram insurgents, he said their real motive is to have access to the seventy five billion savings in bank accounts jointly owned by Borno State Government and its 27 local government councils.
Asked why Borno State Government saved so much money when all sectors are crying out for investment, the lawmaker said Governor Kashim Shettima’s administration inherited N63 billion from former governor Ali Modu Sheriff ’s administration in 2011. He said, “Shettima settled some outstanding bills of 17 billion naira which he met and he has been spending a lot on security but he is quietly saving more money. His target is N100.
The money, he said, is meant to finance an Agricultural Master Plan by Shettima which aims to make Borno State Nigeria’s number one exporter of agricultural products.
He said 67,000 hectares of irrigated land would be cultivated under the South Chad Irrigation Program of which less than 10,000 hectares is currently cultivated. It also includes a plan to build an Agricultural Cargo Airport in northern Borno State and 30 food processing factories. He however said the Boko Haram insurgency has stymied the program’s take-off.
The lawmaker said, “The Government invested N600m from the saved funds to finance the cultivation of 5,000 hectares of wheat in Marte. The farm was doing very well but Boko Haram went and drove away all the farmers and staff of Chad Basin Development Authority. They set the farm ablaze and at the end of the day only 300 bags of wheat were harvested in a farm that was supposed to produce 20,000 tones of wheat.”
He said the Federal Government’s refusal to finance security operations in the state was due to its knowledge of the existence of these funds which are regularly monitored by the Central Bank.
Contacted for his comments yesterday, Borno State’s acting Commissioner for Information Dr Bulama Mohammed said, “I am not aware of that. As far as the Borno State Government is concerned, our focus for now is the freedom of our daughters. This is what bothers Governor Kashim Shettima.”