How Governor Bello wasted N1.5b on staff verification exercise - Melaye

- Senator Dino Melaye, in a lengthy article obtained by Legit.ng, has exposed how the governor of Kogi state, Yahaya Bello, allegedly wasted huge sums on staff verification exercise

- Melaye, the senator representing Kogi West at the National Assembly, said he is not against the exercise, but maintained that it did not follow recommended standards and that the governor had a personal intention

Just a year after becoming the governor of Kogi state, Yahaya Bello is currently enmeshed in a N1.5 billion scandal exposed by his former friend, Senator Dino Melaye.

Melaye released a very long article detailing how the money was spent by the governor on a staff verification exercise that died on arrival.

But at the time of filing this report, the state government had not officially reacted to the allegation from Melaye.

The article obtained by Legit.ng stated: “Investigations have shown that over N1.3 billion was callously lavished on the staff verification and auditing exercise while N270 million was used just to write the report of the exercise that obviously seemed to have died on arrival.”

Melaye said the result of the verification exercise is that some law-abiding citizens have been sent to their early graves while some others have been subjected to robbery, kidnapping and r*pe.

READ ALSO: Senator Dino Melaye steps out in his red convertible car

“But what is now news is the amount of tax pays’ money allegedly used in fostering the pain-inflicting exercise of the cruel confused Direction Team of Governor Yahaya Bello.

“After assuming office on January 27, 2016, Governor Bello’s administration inaugurated a staff verification and auditing committee on February 22, 2016, aimed at curtailing leakages, sanitizing the state’s civil service and weed ghost workers from the government’s pay rolls but since then, more than three other committees headed by different people have been inaugurated to undertake the same responsibility given the manner the various committees saddled with the responsibility of fighting corruption in the civil service were on their own caught in the act they were paid to fight,” he added.

He said the first committee headed by a retired army general, Paul Olushola Okuntimo could not justify the confidence reposed on it adding that after it was disbanded, its chairman was subsequently replaced by Dr Jerry Agbaji, a candidate largely believed to be supported by the state’s chapter of Nigeria Labour Congress.

“Governor Bello and his bamboozled team still went ahead to install another back-up committee headed by the state’s Auditor-General Alhaji Yusufu Okala to work from the backend simultaneously with the Agbaji’s committee," he said.

Agbaji’s report was submitted on Wednesday, 22nd June, 2016 according to Melaye and the report was far below average as “it was reported to be marred and doctored so as to please the wishes of a few corrupt individuals within Bello’s administration.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Senate to probe Osinbajo's official residence with alleged N250m gatehouse

“Following the allegation of the sharp practice associated with Agbaji’s report, 12 members out of the total 29 members of the panel declined appending their signatures on the final reports and distanced themselves from whatever was the outcome.

“This further led the government to disband the Agbaji’s panel and empowered the Okala’s back-up panel to fully take charge of the verification exercise.”

The senator disclosed that the Okala committee swung into action and later revealed that out of the 88,973 people it screened at the state and local governments, 18,211 were discovered to be ghost workers and unintended beneficiaries, adding that the state will enjoy a monthly saving of N1.3 billion from the exercise.

He said Bello immediately set up another committee to review the final report of the committee which worked almost throughout 2016 “while their feeding, hotel lodge, sitting allowances and even transport bills were footed from tax payers’ money.

“As far as this staff verification and audit is concerned, there is no end to formulation and inauguration of Governor Bello’s amoebic and amorphous committees as he is allegedly bent on fighting vendetta and scoring voodoo political goals while subjecting the state’s workforce to begging, indebtedness and all form of in human treatments.

“As at the time of writing this piece, another committee was also said to be in place and were still doing almost everything claimed to have been done by the previous committees, a clear indication that there is an unwavering confusion in the so-called ‘New Direction’ camp and it is an empirical proof that Governor Bello and his handlers lack the 21st century initiatives needed to upgrade the workforce and place it on a productive pedestal.”

Melaye, who said he was not opposed to staff verification exercise, noted that he was not happy with the way the process went as he compared the exercise with globally accepted standards.

READ ALSO: Melaye blasts Gov Bello’s administration

“Bello’s staff verification and auditing exercise is in all standards and judgments politically motivated and was never meant to better the state’s fortunes so that, despite the directive of the state House of Assembly to suspend the exercise while asking members of the panel to appear before it, but for the reign of executive impunity, Governor Bello never gave a dime,” he said adding that Bello intends to glue himself to the seat of power ahead of 2019.

Source: Legit.ng