WE LEFT OVER N10BN IN TREASURY IN 2019 TARGETED TO OFFSET SALARY ARREARS – KWARA PDP FIRES GOV. ABDULRAZAQ

…Condemns advert of propaganda over payment of percentage as arrears

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kwara State has berated Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq’s recent propaganda amplifying payment of paltry 24% and 21% of October 2016 and June 2017, out of an outstanding of 161% and 75% salary arrears owed to local government, SUBEB workers and pensioners in the state when more than N10bn was left in the state’s treasury in 2019 by the Abdulfatah Ahmed administration, which is sufficient to clear all outstanding arrears long before now.

In a statement issued on Tuesday in Ilorin by the PDP State Publicity Secretary in Kwara, Mr Olusegun Olusola Adewara (Sholyments), the Party said Kwarans will recall that sometime May 24, 2019, when the PDP was preparing to transmit baton of leadership, the Abdulfatah government was at the verge of paying all outstanding salaries’ arrears owed to various levels of workers and pensioners when the state, for the first time in 8 years received FAAC, JAAC, VAT and Tax refund from the federal government to the tune of about N10 billion.

However, in a military-like manner, the APC-led federal government conspired with the then EFCC leadership and illegally froze the Kwara state account, preventing the outgoing government from proceeding with its statutory obligations, hence, N10bn was left in the coffer when Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq took over office. This was different from the over N2bn generated internally by the KWIRS for the same month.

The PDP is therefore appalled by the level of the propaganda and media adverts being sponsored by the Abdulrazaq-led government, portraying minimal payments of just 45% of one-month arrears out of 281% arrears to school teachers, local government workers, and pensioners as major accomplishments when over ten billion naira left in the state’s treasury in 2019 is more than sufficient to settle all outstanding arrears at that time.

The PDP in Kwara state is appalled by the level of propaganda and media adverts being sponsored by the Abdulrazaq-led Kwara government over commitment of just N1bn to offset a percentage of salary arrears to school teachers, LG workers, and pensioners when the government inherited huge billions of fund as well as a money-making institution like Kwara Internal Revenue Services (KWIRS).

We wish to remind Governor Abdulrazaq that government is a continuum, and just as he inherited assets of N10bn, he must be prepared to also take liabilities of the government and focus on delivering good governance to the people of Kwara State.

It is disheartening that the Abdulfatah Ahmed-led administration which they are trying to blackmail over the salary crisis which was then a national phenomenon also left Kwara Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), an institution that today is recouping an average of N35bn annually to the government coffers.

The PDP challenges Governor Abdulrazaq to make home his promise of better welfare to all workers by allocating at least #5 billion from the N17 billion he kept in a secret bank to clear the salary arrears and improve workers’ welfare in the state.

While urging the governor to cease misleading the public with media stunts and focus on addressing the N17.8 billion Kwara Hotel renovation scandal, we believe Abdulrazaq should be ashamed of the absence of tangible projects ready for commissioning since 2019, even though his government has received about N700bn since inception.

Governor Abdulrazaq should stop mocking Kwara workers and pensioners by counting salary payments as if he’s doing them any favour and focus on how to fix his depleting goodwill among Kwarans who have now seen through the smokescreen of all the Otoge lies and decades of deceit against Saraki and PDP.