By Abdullahi shuaibu, Lafia.
The Nasarawa state House of Assembly ad-hoc committee on education investigating the alleged N1 billion released in 2018 for the renovation/fencing of secondary school projects has asked the former commissioner for Education and now secretary to the state government,( SSG) Alhaji Aliyu Tijjani Ahmed to refund over N248.5 million as unaccounted funds to the coffers of the state government.
Chairman ad hoc committee investigating the alleged one billion naira, Hon Daniel Oga Ogazi APC kokona East who disclosed this while presenting the report on the floor of the house on Monday also called on contractors who collected money and refused to carry out the renovation/fencing to do so within one month or face the consequences.
Hon. Ogazi further explained that 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 the government coffers immediately The committee chairman also said funds should be released to the contractors who have the capacity and ability to carry out the work.
The committee chairman urged the ministry of education to take on the spot assessment of all uncompleted projects to see the level of work done and to make funds available for the completion of the same in the interest of development.
According to the committee findings, the total released contract sum was N1,084,000,000, only, if deducted N873,233,942.60 from the total contract sum, this will amount to N210,766,057,.40 then,add 5% monitoring and evaluation which is N37,718,499.19 the total sum of unaccounted funds will amount to N248,484,556.60 He said during investigation, the secretary to the state government (SSG) has agreed that he will take the responsibility of his actions.
Speaking after receiving the report, speaker, Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi while commending the chairman and members of the committee for a job weldone fixed Tuesday June 2,2020 for deliberation on the the report.
It would be recalled that the speaker Hon Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi inaugurated an ad hoc committee on March 17th ,2020 under the chairmanship of Hon.Daniel Oga Ogazi APC kokona East to investigate alleged N1 billion contract and fencing of schools across the state.
Nasarawa Reporters 