Kogi 2017 Budget a Monumental Fraud – Dino Melaye

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By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON

Senator Dino Melaye representing Kogi West Senatorial district has taken a swipe at governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State by describing his 2017 budget proposal as a ‘monumental fraud’.

Melaye in a statement he personally made available, said that on the 2017 budget estimates which was presented to the Kogi State House of Assembly on the 22nd December 2016, the total estimate was put at over N174Billion, with a capital expenditure of about N116, 320,140.266 representing 66.53% and a recurrent expenditure of N58,531,404,254 (33.47%).

Senator Melaye who had overwhelmingly thrown his weight behind governor initially have recently fallen out with him for undisclosed political reasons, thereby criticizing his poor performance over the 2016 budget.
Dino as fondly called, gave critical assessment of the state governor’s proposed budget of his new direction for 2017, picking holes in the huge sum allocated for the government house, deputy, and Chief of Staff among others.
“The Kogi State House of Assembly must do all they can to right the wrong in the budget of the state as presented by the Governor of Kogi,” Dino began in a series of tweets.
“Kogi state Capital budget performance in 2016 is 18%. This is a monumental failure by any standard.
“Kogi state government has embarked on projects that were not captured in the 2016 appropriation act, thus violating the Appropriation Act.
“Yahaya Bello has proposed in the 2017 budget that N24,983,269,515 totaling 14% of the entire 2017 budget to Government house alone.
“Deputy Governor’s office to squander N884,675,887; Head of Service will gulp N2,563,857059; SSG office to take N3,900,337,260.
“All these huge allocation to govt house, HOS, SSG and A General offices is monumental fraud as these are not revenue generating institutions.
“Most disturbing is Kogi Ministry of Finance HQ that will spend N8,755,071,709 in 2017 budget and yet not a revenue generating institution

He threatened to investigate the activities of some of the Bello’s associates including his Chief of Staff Edward Onoja with the assurance of bringing them to book.

“I see Edward Onoja, Taofik Isa in befitting prison uniforms. We are still collating your infractions against the people of Kogi State.”

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