Billions of naira for Kogi MDG projects were diverted- Report

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2013/2013 projects in Kogi has suffered serious setback, as funds approved for projects across the 21 local governments have been allegedly misappropriated. This was contained in the interim report on the state MDGs/SDGs project appraisal as at 23rd July 2016, presented by the special adviser to governor Yahaya Bello on the projects, Abdulmummuni Okara during a stakeholder’s forum in Government House on Monday.

But in a swift reaction, the special adviser to former Governor Idris Wada, Jacob Edi said most of the presentations were not true saying his principal was still studying the content and that in due course they would react appropriately. 
”As a preliminary response we want to say some of the information they put out there are lies and I wonder why they have to go to that extent to deceive the people.”
Continuing, he explained that under the 2013/2013 state track which was supposed to cover all the 21 local Government areas of the State, a high level lopsidedness was observed, in which Kogi East got over N1.08B representing 82% while Kogi west and central got N173million and N63M representing 13% and 4.8% respectively.

According to him, “In actual sense, the eastern senatorial district was even more marginalized as the bulk of the money went into private pockets. He pointed out that none of the schools had instrumental materials or facilities. In the area of skill acquisition, Okara indicated that most of the centers were fraudulently and poorly executed adding that most of the equipment for the skill acquisition centers was not supplied.

On water and sanitation he said the projects were poorly executed and those in place were not functional. He further said it was unfortunate that billions of Naira was said to have been expended by the previous regime from ecological funds accruing to the State for the achievement of Goal-15 for the reversal of land degradation whereas nothing was done. In the area of health, he said it was observed that most of the primary health centers were either not utilized or under utilized, as most had no drugs and medical equipment.