Nasarawa assembly sets up ad -hoc c’ttee to probe N1bn school projects
The Nasarawa state House of Assembly has set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the N1billion secondary schools renovation contract awarded in 2018 by the state Ministry of Education.
Speaker of the House, Alhaji Ibrahim Balarabe-Abdullahi, set up the committee when the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Aliyu Tijani and the Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Fati Sabo appeared before the House on Tuesday in Lafia.
The speaker said that their appearance is to explain their roles on the utilisation of the funds for the renovation of secondary schools across the state with most of the projects abandoned.
According to him, the invitation of the two state high ranking officials is not to witch -hunt them, but to ensure that things were done right for the objective of accountability and good governance.
”After listening to the secretary to the state government, who was a former commissioner for education when the contract was awarded in 2018 without completion up till this moment, it is in view of this that we are setting up an ad hoc committee to investigate the projects in the interest of our children and overall development of the state.
” The committee include the chairman and members of the House Committee on Education, chairmen of House Committees on Finance, Public Account and Works respectively.
” I urge the committee to do a thorough job as it is sad and unfortunate that our children in some secondary schools are learning under trees,” he said.
Earlier, the secretary to the state government admitted that N1billion was released in November 2018 by the state government to the ministry of education for school renovation purposes.
” Yes, the renovation work is ongoing as the contract was given in 2018 when I was a commissioner for education,” Tijani said.
The current Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Fati Sabo, also revealed that N84 million was given to the ministry when she assumed office in 2019 to pay contractors for the same projects.
