..N60m cash for Speaker monthly is not true – Media officer
By Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
A Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Zamfara State, Mr Aminu Umar has again accused Zamfara state Governor, Bello Mohammed Matawalle of misappropriating N31 billion state allocation.
Umar, who is also the principal private secretary (PPS) to the deputy Governor of Zamfara State, in a release on Friday, also challenged Governor Matawalle to explain to the public how he spent over Thirty One Billion Naira he collected in 31 Months.
Mr Umar, Popularly known as “Game-game”, who insisted on the need for the governor to give detailed explanation on how he utilized the said amount of Money he received as security vote, Cash Allocation to his office, office of his Principal Private Secretary and that of the government house in 31 months.
Umar who is PPS to the embattle deputy governor of Zamfara state said, “all is not well in the state as the governor opted to enriching himself rather than executing developmental projects for the benefit of all in the state.
The PPS explained that, “in 31 months of Matawalle’s administration, he collect Six Hundred Million Naira (N600,000,000.00) as ‘security vote’ monthly; Three Hundred and Fifty Million Naira as ‘Cash Allocation’ for his office; Thirty Million Naira for the office his PPS and Thirty million Naira as Cash Allocation for government house, amounting to One Billion and Ten Million Naira monthly which according to him if multiply by the 31 months it will be equal to Thirty One Billion, Three hundred and Ten Million Naira (N31,310,000,000)
PPS Aminu who berated governor Bello Mohammed Matawalle for not executing any meaningful project in the state said, “instead of creating confusions in a state that is heavily suffering from terrorism and cannot even take care of the helpless internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) beside other critical challenges bedeviling the State.
“Moreover, Aminu Game-Game accused Governor Matawalle for crippling all sectors in the state”, saying, in educational sector the governor refused to settle examination fees for WAEC, NECO and other thereby putting the teaming youths to an uncertainty and broke their life ambitions.
Aminu Umar also threw same challenge to the Speaker of the Zamfara state House of Assembly, Nasiru Mu’azu Magarya who according to him collects Sixty Million Naira Monthly as Cash Allocation which in twenty nine months amounted to One Billion Seven hundred and Forty Four million Naira, saying he should give account on how he manage the resources.
He added that, his principal received the Sum of Five Hundred and Ninety Five Million Naira in 19 Months before the Governor’s directives to stop giving the Cash Allocation to his office, saying until then he received Thirty Million Naira monthly for the Nineteen months which used and sponsored 300 students to study in Zamfara Collage of Arts and Science (ZACAS), Two hundred students in Collage of Education Maru.
Others were, One hundred Students in Collage of Health Sciences and Technology, Tsafe; Twenty Eight to Al Bidayatul Jameelah, Kaduna.
The Deputy Governor Mahdi Aliyu also sponsored “some of the students to study abroad, Ten in Ghana; Twenty three in Niger Republic, 7 in Togo among others.
Aminu also revealed that, the deputy governor used the cash Allocation to support 120 people for medical treatment, 2,300 persons for livelihood assistance and 23 persons benefitted for marriage assistance as since inception, the deputy governor dedicated his salary for service to humanity and has earlier vowed to make good use of the cash allocation.
Contacted, the media Officer to Governor Matawalle, Idris….. who acknowledged seen the the statement said his principal is taken appreciate action against the report he admitted as damaging and false allegations.
He explained that the total money received as subvention coming to Zamfara Government on monthly basis is between N3.1bn, N3.3billion and N3.4billion respectively with direct deduction of N1.6billion naira monthly.
According him, the deputy Governor and his men are very aware of this development but are blabbing because they’ve lost out, adding “And the one coming to the coffer of Zamfara State Government is about N2 billion plus.
“We’re paying wages of 1.4billion naira. What is left is N600million naira. Out the N600m is what we’re paying all the ministries, agencies and some other contracts we’re doing in the state. And they know all about this”, he said.
