Lamido leaves N11bn debt for incoming govt

Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State on Thursday said he would leave N11 billion liability to the incoming government on May 29.
Lamido said this while assenting to the state’s 2015 Appropriation Bill in Dutse, the state capital.
He said the liability was part of the N17 billion used to construct an international airport in Dutse which was sourced from the budget of various sectors.
He said the Federal Government promised to refund the money used to construct the airport in the state but he could only get N6 billion out of the money.
“We took the money from the state budgetary allocation from other sectors to build an airport within shortest period of time.
“We used the money where we think are useful and needed especially to get the airport started, with the intention of recovering it from the Federal Government but it was not forthcoming.
“This had affected our ongoing projects which we could not complete like in health sector and road projects.”
He said the projects included the eastern bye-pass, Andaza-Birma, Maigatari-Birniwa and Gabas-Maruta-Kila.
The governor said he felt bad for not fulfilling the promise made to the people to work within the available resources without leaving any debt.
He said as a human being, he had his own limitation and things he could not do, no matter what his wishes were.
Lamido said that the incoming government would be properly briefed on the debt.
He urged the governor-elect, Alhaji Badaru Abubakar, to follow-up the money promised by the Federal Government.
He expressed delight that both the governor-elect and president-elect were in the same party and would be easier to get the money.