The immediate past Governor of Bauchi state Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar has debunked the allegation that his government left behind a debt profile to the tune of N137 billion to the new administration.
Reacting to the allegation through his media aide Ali M. Ali, the former governor decried that the statement attributed to Senator Adamu Gumba, Chairman of the Transition Committee that the immediate past administration bequeathed a debt of abpout N137billion was incorrect.
WikkiTimes had in October last year published an investigation which detailed the huge debt burden of the state then to the tune of over N119 billion as at June, 2018.
The Investigation further revealed that Bauchi state has the highest domestic and external debt profile of all the six states in the North Eastern part of the country.
Ali M. Ali however revealed that the previous government inherited N98billion from the former government of Malam Isa Yuguda in 2015, a claim WikkiTimes could not independently verify.
The Media aide to Mr. Abubakar concluded that his Principal bequeathed N41billion debt as against N137 billion claimed by the new administration.
“Throughout the four year tenure of the former leader, the government didn’t take a single commercial loan. We however, acknowledge the receipts of various intervention loans from the federal government that totalled N34.6b.These were concessionary loans by the federal government to, especially states, with heavy financial burden and lean purse”.
“All states were beneficiaries except Lagos and Akwa Ibom states.
“For example the government benefitted from Bailout loan of N8.6 billion; Infrastructure Loan- N10billion; CBN CACS Loan – N8 billion and Budget Support Facility loan N8billion. Collectively these totalled N34.6billion”. He claimed.
He also claimed that all the listed loans were given to all the states across the federation except the listed two.
Ali stated that the loans were used for the purposes they were meant for adding, that Abubakar left N11.6billion in the state government Account being refund of projects undertaken on behalf of the Federal Government in the state .
“Before its tenure ended on May 29th,the government of Abubakar ensured that the refund was effected despite the machinations of detractors, some of whom, are very visible now”.
“At no time was the government of MA Abubakar a spendthrift or engaged in frivolities in the management of very lean resources”. He said.
