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Former governor of Kwara State, Abdulfatah Ahmed has said the sale of 110 government properties followed due process.
Ahmed was reacting to the allegation by the incumbent governor of the state, Abdulrahman Abdulrazak, that he sold government properties to friends and cronies.
Abdulrazak had alleged that Ahmed’s administration sold 110 government properties, including the house meant for the deputy governor.
The governor disclosed this on Monday after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at Aso Rock.
He accused his predecessor of mismanaging resources of the state, adding that his deputy now lives in a rented apartment.
But Ahmed absolved his administration of any wrongdoing on the sale of the properties.
In a statement issued by his media aide, Muyideen Akorede, Ahmed said his administration followed due process in selling government quarters to civil servants, and members of the seventh Kwara State house of assembly on owner-occupier basis after state executive council approval.
He said the said approval also covered other properties disposed off by his administration with the proceed paid into government coffers.
He said: “The federal government’s monetisation policy, which sought to shed the financial burden of maintaining government-owned properties, motivated my administration’s sale of the assets.”
Ahmed also said contrary to Abdulrazak’s claim of misappropriation, the former administration cancelled a bank loan obtained as counterpart fund for Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) 2013 grant, when the repayment pressured dwindling federal allocation and threatened pressing government obligations.
Regarding salary payment, Ahmed said his administration was up to date in the payment of state civil servants including senior secondary teachers under its remit before he left office.
He, however, said local government councils owed their workers and primary school teachers subsisting salary arrears on account of unstable federal allocation to that tier of government.
“Your administration’s adoption of the our administration’s position that salaries and pensions gulped the bulk of federal allocation to the state and local government councils had vindicated us,” Ahmed said.