There is a raging disquiet in President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state of Katsina as the state governor; Aminu Masari is being accused by his immediate predecessor, Ibrahim Shema of attempts to damage the latter’s reputation and reversing the successes earlier recorded in the state.
It was learnt that the ex-governor has already sought the intervention of President Buhari on the matter.
According to a letter written by his lawyers, Wole Olanipekun and Co, Shema’s grievances was informed by the “unwarranted and unexpected campaign of calumny being waged against him (Shema), coupled with the deliberate attempt to blackmail, denigrate and vilify him and his aides.”
In the letter signed by Wole Olanipekun (SAN) and dated July 11, 2015, the former governor alleged that the Aminu Bello Masari-led administration had been making concerted efforts, “all in a conscious bid to decimate his towering image and reverse the progress attained in Katsina State under his leadership.”
He described as blatant lies, nauseating and malicious the claims that the “Ibrahim Shema-led administration incurred and left the state with a debt of N42 billion upon the expiration of its term; that the administration ‘incurred a foreign debt portfolio of $78 million’ and that ‘a sum of N13 billion ‘got missing’ and/or was unaccounted for at/by the Ministry of Finance between January and May, 2015.”
The ex-governor further debunked the allegations that, “a sum of N7 billion was dubiously transferred to the account of the state chapter of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) and same was recklessly used by the said local government areas;’ that the Ibrahim Shema-led administration embezzled N7,100 billion from the fund meant for the SURE-P scheme;’ and that ‘a sum of N556 million was misappropriated by the State Universal Basic Education Board, and/or that the said Board purportedly cannot account for it.”
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