The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has debunked media reports that
the Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, is building a $3
million hotel from monies allegedly stolen from the Paris-London Club
refund to states.
In a statement issued on Monday by NGF’s Head, Media and Public
Affairs, Mr. Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, the Forum described the
report as “harmful, damaging, libellous and largely unsubstantiated by
those peddling it.”
Bello-Barkindo said that the reports on Governor Abdulaziz Yari
Abubakar of Zamfara State, and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum
making the rounds in some online media which claimed that he is
building a $3million hotel from monies stolen from the Paris-London Club
refunds to states, gives cause for worry.
According to him, the reports contain “harmful, damaging and
libellous insinuations which remain largely unsubstantiated despite the
fact that it attributes the leaks to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) officials in Lagos.
“Governor Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar has said that emphatically that
he does not even own a plot of land in Lagos, not to talk of a hotel.
But the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission officials in Lagos
claimed as follows: that ‘they have found a hotel being constructed by
Governor Yari of Zamfara State with $3million he stole from the
London-Paris Club loan refund to Nigerian states,” the NGF said.
The forum also slammed the online medium at the centre of the
reports, saying that what it is brandishing as disclosures from the EFCC
are figures capable of misleading the public and causing harm to Yari.
“The online medium’s claim that apart from the $3 million, Governor
Yari also diverted N500 million from the Paris Club refund to pay off a
loan is not only false, but misleading. The medium also added that
EFCC officials in Lagos revealed that, overall the governor embezzled
the sum of N2.2 billion from the N19 billion set aside illegally to pay
‘consultants’, all of which are wrong, harmful, libellous and
misleading disclosures.
“Governor Abdulaziz Yari is neither building any hotel in Lagos nor
were any monies stolen or embezzled from the Paris-London Club refunds
to states or from any other source,” he said
The online medium had quoted the EFCC extensively as its source,
but the NGF said that it is alarmed that the anti-graft agency continues
to feed the media fibs at the expense of its hard-earned reputation as
the commission that Nigerians used to respect.
“This report, typical of most of the exclusive leaks that are
becoming characteristic of the sources that court some sections of the
media, lacks detail and compelling evidence to be fit to print. The
sources were courageous enough to mention a hotel in the Lekki area of
Lagos, but gave neither a street name nor any specific information on
the property to give credibility to the allegations. This does no
service to any investigation nor does it help the development of our
country Nigeria,” the Forum said.
The Forum therefore tasked the media to support the EFCC in
ensuring that convicting people on the pages of newspapers shouldn’t be
their focus, as they are the watchdogs of society
No comments: