by Ranti Joseph
Niger State All Progressives Congress (APC) on Sunday, told Governor Babangida Aliyu to account for the billions of naira deducted at source from local government accounts, which he did not disbursed to the ward development committees over the years.
The ward development project policy of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration has been used to siphon local government funds and further impoverished the grassroots.
APC, who disclosed this in a statement in Minna by its state Publicity Secretary, Jonathan Vatsa, said although the concept of the ward development policy would have brought real development to the people if it were properly implemented, but the administration had allowed corruption and fraud to swallow its implementation across the state. Vatsa stated that the government had failed the people in this programme.
He expressed dismay that the party governorship campaign team has been inundated with complaints from the rural dwellers in the interior villages about the poor implementation of the programme, while government was making noise about its success on the pages of newspapers.
“Deductions were made every month from the accounts of the local governments but the money was not made available for the projects. We are bound to ask where are the deductions kept and in whose account? The truth is that the ward development project is an avenue for siphoning public monies. We call on the governor to give account of all deductions since the inception of the ward development project,” he challenged.
Vatsa said the project had become drain-pipe on public funds, while schools in the rural areas had become dilapidated and roads in terrible conditions. “Most of the people have no access to portable drinking water and yet government has been busy deceiving them about the project,” he added.
He maintained that the people deserved explanation on reasons the Director General of the Ward Development Projects, Ibrahim Takuma, had to resign recently, and how many months had passed without the release of the deductions made as first line charge on the local governments’ accounts.
“The only thing visible from the Ward Project programme is the inflated contract for the purchase of Hi-Lux trucks by the government and shared amongst its officials, to the detriment of development of wards and local government areas of the state,” he said.
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