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Kwara Assembly approves N2.7b loan for salaries, official vehicles

By Abiodun Fagbemi, Ilorin
26 January 2016   |   11:24 pm
KWARA State House of Assembly yesterday approved the request of the state government to access N2.7 billion loan from Sterling Bank for the payment of October 2015 salary arrears of workers and pensioners in the 16 local councils and purchase of official vehicles for public office holders in the state.
Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State

Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State

KWARA State House of Assembly yesterday approved the request of the state government to access N2.7 billion loan from Sterling Bank for the payment of October 2015 salary arrears of workers and pensioners in the 16 local councils and purchase of official vehicles for public office holders in the state.

The state government is to spend N1.5 billion of the amount on payment of salaries while N1.2 billion is for procurement of vehicles for politicians.

The approval followed requests from the state Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, in separate letters addressed to the Speaker, Dr. Ali Ahmad, dated 11th and 13th January 2016 respectively read at the floor of the House by the Deputy Speaker, Elder Mathew Okedare.

Leading other members in the debate, the Leader of the House, Alhaji Hassan Oyeleke, explained that the approval for the loan facilities became imperative in view of the dwindling revenue allocation from the Federation Account.

Oyeleke added that payment of salaries to workers was sacrosanct to make them perform optimally just as he argued that provision of official vehicles was equally necessary to enhance the performance of legislators.

Other members who contributed to the debate expressed confidence that the loan facility if judiciously used would address the ongoing industrial dispute by teachers at the basic school level.

However, member representing Ojomu/Balogun constituency, Mr. Saheed Popoola and member representing Kaiama, Kemanji, Wajibe constituency, Alhaji Ahmed Ibn Mohammed, urged the state government to look inward by evolving ways to improve the state’s Internally Generated Revenue to stop overdependence on the Federation Account.

Meanwhile, the demand for Garri a staple food processed from cassava tuber has fallen in Ilorin, the state capital.A visit by The Guardian to three major Garri processing centres in Ilorin showed that demand for the food has fallen by over 60 percent.

This may be connected the outbreak of Lassa fever in some states and warnings to people by health officials to avoid the food for now.

At Lanjorin, Sabo-Oke area of the town, dealers in the food who before now realise up to N30,000 daily say they hardly make a sale of N18,000. The situation is the same at Eleboto area of Sango where the traders complain of lack of buyers.

However, most of the traders are not aware of the reason for the sudden decline in the demand for the product. Mrs. Ibukun Oladunjoye at Lanjorin said, “we just discovered that sales dropped in the last few days, but we thought it could be scarcity of funds.”

Some residents now prefer cats to rat traps to keep rodents away from their homes. This has led to an increase in the price of domestic cats to between N2,000 and N2,500.

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