Governor Sule Lamido Jets Out To Saudi Arabia, Leaves N14bn Debt As He Hands Over To SSG

Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State yesterday handed over to the Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Abdu Babura, after a news conference at the end of the council meeting and left the state for Abuja-Lagos en route Saudi-Arabia.

Daily Trust Newspaper reports that the out-going governor said at the news conference that a debt profile of the state obtained from the joint sitting of the two transition committees was N14 billion.

He said the federal government owes the state N12 billion from the airport project executed by state government with the understanding and commitment of the federal government to reimburse the state while N2 billion is the actual debt of the state.

It would be recalled that the governor had at a briefing two weeks ago, said he committed about N17 billion of the state’s funds in the airport project with hope that President Goodluck Jonathan, who promised during his visit to Jigawa in 2010 to establish an airport there, would reimburse the state, adding that the federal government only paid the state N5.8 billion, leaving a balance of N12 billion.

President Jonathan in October 2014 while commissioning the airport said the federal government would only support state governments handling airport projects because the government cannot reimburse all the eight state building airports across the country.

Lamido also told newsmen that there were rollover projects worth N90 billion for which the state government had awarded contracts but had not made any payment to the contractors, adding that it was left for the incoming administration to continue or stop the projects.

The governor also told journalists that all political appointees would be in their offices till the midnight of May 28, adding that statutory appointees would stay till their tenure expires.