Ex-Gov Aliyu, others frittered away resources in Niger – Gov Bello

The Governor of Niger State, Abubakar Sani Bello, has blamed his predecessors in office, especially the immediate past administration of Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu, for the sorry state of infrastructure across the state.

In an interactive session with journalists yesterday in Minna, Gov. Bello said the PDP administration failed to build on the infrastructure it met but indulged in wasteful spending.

He said infrastructure in all the sectors were in rot, saying the PDP administration turned a blind eye and instead embarked on bogus projects which cost were inflated even as some of the projects were abandoned midway.

Giving example, he mentioned a hospital built in Nasko in Magama Local Government Area by the immediate past administration at the cost of N600m, Gov. Bello said the project was misplaced, adding that what the town required was a standard primary healthcare centre that would meet the needs of the people.

“The cost of that hospital now with the naira at N350 to a dollar is equivalent to N2bn; but what is most disheartening is that the major part of the hospital is now being inhabited by goats and other domestic animals,” he said.

He said the state could not boast of good access roads when he took over, while schools were in a dilapidated state, with health facilities also in terrible state of disrepair.

He explained that because of the magnitude of the challenges he saw during his electioneering campaign ahead of the 2015 election, he was careful not to make any promises to Nigerlites, but that he was very careful not to commit himself during the campaign “because that time we had an idea of the challenges, we had an idea of the infrastructural gap, we had an idea of the entire projects that were abandoned.”