Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari has said treasury looters must, as a matter of necessity, be punished so as to serve as deterrent to all those wishing to do same.
The governor of President Muhammadu Buhari’s home State, Katsina, Aminu Masari, deceived the president to get more than N11 billion bailout supposedly to pay workers’ salary arrears, PREMIUM TIMES Nicholas Ibekwe had reported.
Feigning insolvency, Katsina State applied as one of the 27 states in need of bailout from the Federal Government to pay workers owed salaries for months.
Speaking exclusively to LEADERSHIP WEEKEND, Masari assured that all those who embezzled Katsina state monies would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
He said once the state executive council was constituted, “it will take decision on the issue of outright stealing of Katsina state money and those who took our money must bring them back”.
The former speaker of House of Representatives said “The issue is that there must be punishment. We are insisting that there must be punishment so as to serve as deterrent”.
He insisted that merely asking looters to return looted money was not enough to “because no matter what you do, not all of it will be returned” adding that there must be stiff penalty for those found wanting of embezzlement so as to deter those wishing to do same.
The Katsina state governor said in insisting that treasury looters be made to face full wrath of the law, “we are putting a break on ourselves” and regretted that despite receiving close to one trillion naira from the federation account between 2007 and 2015, Katsina State had nothing to show.
