Rebuilding of burnt Kogi Assembly complex to wait, says govt

Kogi State Commissioner for Finance, Idris Ashiru, has said rebuilding of the razed House of Assembly Complex will have to wait until the state’s finances improve.

“Until we get buyers for some of the state’s assets, which are already up for sale, we may not be liquid enough to undertake many of our pending projects, including Kogi State House of Assembly Complex,” the commissioner said, yesterday, in Lokoja at the citizens’ engagement on the state’s 2023 Budget, organised by the state’s Ministry of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning.

The assets that have been put up for sale include Kogi Hotels.

The Guardian recalls that the Assembly chamber went up in flames in the morning of Tuesday, October 11, 2022, ripping through the roof, in what the Speaker, Matthew Kolawole, described as suspected act of sabotage.

Though, Ashiru did not point at any quarter, he noted that security operatives were working to unravel the cause of the fire.

He called on citizens to help the state look for buyers, for the state to have more money to embark on the reconstruction of the building and fix the access road, which is in a very bad shape.

Earlier, the commissioner had lamented the downturn in the economic prospect of not only the state and country, but globally.

“The last six years or thereabout have been very challenging nationally and globally. From recession in 2016 to Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in 2020 to the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022 and multiplicity of domestic issues, we can safely say that this not the best of times for all nations of the world.

“Cumulatively, insecurity has dwarfed our productive capacity, which, in effect, further escalated poverty, agitations and general instability in all facets of our national life,” the commissioner noted.

Strategic conversations like this are, therefore, important to find solutions to our problems, he added.