Abubakar says he left N11.6bn in Bauchi state’s coffers

Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media and Strategy to former governor of Bauchi state, Ali Ali has revealed that his boss, Mohammed Abubakar left N11.6 billion in the state government’s coffers.

This was contained in a press release circulated to journalists on Sunday in reaction to statements credited to the Bauchi state Transition Committee Chairman, Senator Adamu Gumba that his boss left a debt profile of N137 billion.

In the statement, Ali said that the state government under Abubakar left N11.6 billion in the state government’s account being refund of projects undertaken on behalf of the federal government in the state.

“Before its tenure ended on May 29, the government of Abubakar ensured that the refund was effected despite the machinations of detractors, some of whom are very visible now.

“Our attention has been drawn to a factually incorrect statement attributed to Sen. Gumba, chairman of the transition committee that the immediate past administration bequeathed a debt profile of N137 billion.‎

“He also revealed that the previous government inherited N98 billion from the former government of Malam Isa Yuguda in 2015.‎ He finally concluded that the outgone government left behind N41 billion debt.”

Ali, who described Sen. Gumba’s assertion as incorrect, said throughout the four -year tenure of the past administration, Abubakar did not take a single commercial loan.

While acknowledging the receipts of various intervention loans from the federal government that totalled N34.6 billion, the former governor’s aide said “these were concessionary loans by the federal government to, especially states with heavy financial burden and lean purse. All states were beneficiaries except, Lagos and Akwa Ibom states.”

He said that the former government benefited from the bailout loan of N8.6 billion, infrastructure loan of N10 billion, CBN loan of N8 billion and budget support facility loan of N8billion totalling N34.6 billion.

“All the listed loans were given to all the states across the federation, except the listed two. Under the leadership of Abubakar, the loans were used for the purposes they were meant for,” he added.

He pointed out that the government of Abubakar did not engage in frivolities in the management of the very lean resources of Bauchi state.