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Kogi PDP tackles Bello over plans to sell assets to fund budget

By John Akubo, Lokoja
06 February 2018   |   4:22 am
Plans by the Kogi State government to sell some legacy structures to fund the 2018 budget has come under criticisms.

Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello

•Melaye threatens legal action against governor
Plans by the Kogi State government to sell some legacy structures to fund the 2018 budget has come under criticisms.

Leading in the knocks is the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which described it as the height of rascality by a clueless government.

The criticism was contained in a statement by the party’s state Publicity Secretary, Bode Ogunmole, in Lokoja yesterday.

The PDP listed the property due to be sold as the state’s liaison offices in Lagos and Kaduna, Kogi Hotels, Confluence Beach Hotel, Confluence Stadium, Confluence Millennium Park and the 12-story Kogi House in Abuja.

Ogunmole urged Governor Yahaya Bello to rescind the plan, adding that the PDP would not accept to mortgage the peoples’ collective future.

It vowed to resist attempts to sell the property to officials and cronies of the state government.

He said the plan to sell the assets was revealed by the state Commissioner for Finance, Asiwaju Idris, during his budget defence at the state House of Assembly.

“Rather than frittering our heritage in loose living, the government should champion their protection. Any thing short of this would be strongly resisted by our people,” the statement said.

Reacting to the PDP’s objection, Idris said the policy was in the best interest of the state.

Also, the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Petra Onyegbulem, said the PDP was criticising the move because it lacked vision and ability to move the state forward.

She said the government decided to sell the non-revenue earning assets as the Federal Government did during the tenure of ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo.

He said: “The past administration took a bond to establish white elephant projects that could have been assets to the state.

“But because they were so gigantic without proper projection, they became liabilities to us and the state has continued to service the debt without earning anything from them.

“But we have more pressing needs that would impact the ordinary people of the state, which we need to finance now.”

Meanwhile, the Senator representing Kogi West district, Dino Melaye, has cautioned against the planned sale.

He threatened to sue the governor, if he sells the structures built by past administrators of the confluence state.

Melaye said selling the remaining glory left for the state, would portray Bello as a prodigal son.

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