Federal Projects Refund: Senate Okays N10bn For Kogi

• Federal Projects Refund: Senate Okays N10bn For Kogi

The Senate has approved the payment of N10 billion refund loan for Kogi State for projects executed on behalf of the Federal Government.

President Muhammadu Buhari in October wrote a letter to the Senate for the approval.

The Senate’s approval follows the presentation and consideration of a report by the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts.

According to the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Clifford Ordia, key officials of the state government were invited to brief the committee in the course of its legislative work.

Ordia further disclosed that the committee also assessed all submissions made by the Federal Ministry of Finance, alongside documents from the Bureau of Public Procurement and Kogi State Government.

The Committee in its report stated that it undertook an oversight visit to Kogi State to assess the projects and maintained that the said projects met the required standard by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.

The projects, as listed by Ordia includes: reconstruction of Shintaku-Odugbo road, reconstruction of Ganaja-Ajaokuta road, reconstruction of Idah-Onyedega road, and dualization of Lokoja-Ganaja road.

Others are: reconstruction of three-span bridge along Shintaku-Odugbo road, reconstruction of four-span bridge along Shintaku-Odugbo road, and reconstruction of Iyamoje-Igagun-Ifeolu-Kptun-Ponyan-Jegede road.

The committee, in its findings, stated that “inspections were carried out by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing,” adding that Kogi State has completed all the said projects and paid all contractors that executed them.

However, the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe argued that the Senate’s approval should be delayed until after the Kogi governorship election scheduled to hold this weekend.

He said: “This is not the right time to approve such loan refund. Exigency of the time suggests that we should delay for one week so that the money would not be used for something else.”

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, in a counter-argument, explained that “Kogi State applied for this refund in the last Senate. All the States that applied were approved here by the last Senate.

“Now as the ninth Senate, we have seen the necessity and are doing justice. We have done justice to others, and we have to do justice to Kogi State. When it is done is not the matter.”