Nasarawa State House of Assembly on Tuesday urged Governor Abdullahi Sule to relieve the Secretary to the State Government, Aliyu Ahmed-Tijani of his appointment, for failing to account for over N248.5m released for schools’ rehabilitation.
The fund was released when Ahmed-Tijani was Commissioner of Education in the immediate past administration.
Speaker of the Nigerian state assembly, Ibrahim Abdullahi, announced the house’s resolution after the lawmakers deliberated on the report of an ad hoc committee that investigated the N1 billion released in 2018 for renovation and fencing of public secondary schools in the state.
The assembly asked Ahmed-Tijani to refund the over N248.5m he did not account for to the state government’s coffers.
It noted that the former commissioner had displayed blatant inefficiency, incompetence and ineffectiveness in the performance of his official duties.
“Based on the resolution of the assembly, Governor Abdullahi Sule should relieve the SSG of his appointment.
“I request the clerk to communicate the Assembly’s resolution to the governor for immediate action,” the speaker said.
He called on Sule to implement the resolution in the interest of peace, development and accountability to serve as deterrent to others.
According to the speaker, based on the committee’s findings, N873,233,942.60 was expended based on information from the payment vouchers, excluding five per cent deductions for Monitoring and Evaluation, as payments for the completed and uncompleted projects.
“The released contract sum was N1.084m; if N873,233,942.60 is deducted, N210,766,057.40 will be unaccounted for. Then add five per cent Monitoring and Evaluation, which is N37,718, 499.19, the total unaccounted fund will amount to N248,484,556.60,” he said.
Urging the government to declare state of emergency on all the projects to ensure their completion, the house added: “All contractors who completed their work should be paid immediately by the ministry and all payments made to the unknown contractors should be refunded to government coffers immediately.
“Funds should be released to contractors who have the capacity and ability to carry out the work.”
The speaker called on contractors who collected money and refused to carry out the renovation/fencing to do so within one month or face the consequences.
He urged the ministry of education to make on-the-spot assessment of all uncompleted projects to see the level of work done and to make funds available for their completion in the interest of development.
Earlier, Alhaji Mohammed Alkali (APC, Lafia North) had moved a motion for the sack of Ahmed-Tijani as SSG. The motion was seconded by Alhaji Ibrahim Muluku (APC, Nasarawa Eggon East).
The house unanimously adopted the motion.
On March 17, 2020, the speaker had constituted an ad hoc committee to investigate the utilisation of the N1bn approved for the renovation/fencing of public secondary schools in the state.
