I will expose former govs who looted Kaduna dry — El-Rufai

Kaduna state Governor Nasir El-Rufai has threatened to expose former governors of the state who stole from the state coffers, challenging any former governor to come out and join him in swearing with the holy Qur’an that he did not steal from the state.

Speaking in a Hausa interview on KSMC monitored in Kaduna, the governor, who stated that the loans taken by his administration and all the money accruing to the state in the last seven and half years were spent on developing the state and making it better for the people.

He, however, warned that if they continued to talk, he would tell the world how they looted the money meant for development in the state and ferried some to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other metropolitan capitals to acquire properties.

According to him, one of the former governors was allegedly complicit in a misappropriated N500 million contract to reconstruct the popular WAFF Road, as nothing was done on the road until he came in as governor and constructed a dual carriageway on the road.

“They looted the money, the person they gave the WAFF road contract is dead,” he said.

He singled out former Vice President Namadi Sambo who, as governor of Kaduna state, started a 300 bed specialist hospital in Millennium City, Kaduna but couldn’t complete the project before moving to Aguda House in Abuja, as the vice president to president Goodluck Jonathan in 2010.

He said: “I’m happy with the quality of job we did, it would last many years, not the kind of shabby job done by the previous government which won’t last more than one or two years. But there is more work for us to do because we want someone to enter Kaduna without seeing any untarred road but roads paved with asphalt, with solar powered street lights. Same in Zaria, Kafanchan and other local governments, Soba, Birnin Gwari that is what we wanted.

“Those who said we incurred debt, they can see what we spent the loan upon. We didn’t take the money to Dubai to buy houses, we didn’t build a big mansion on Jabi road to live a luxurious life. That is not who we are, I became Kaduna state Governor with one house in Ungwar Sarki in Danja road, till now that I’m rounding up my tenure that is my only house. I didn’t build a big mansion anywhere and I didn’t steal anybody’s money.

“All those who served as governor of Kaduna state should also come out and swear with the Qur’an that when they were governor, they didn’t take a Kobo. But I can swear with the Qur’an that I didn’t steal anybody’s money.

“For us, leadership is a trust from God and we will give account to God how we manage the trust. So, any amount of money we got from federal allocation, from grants, from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), we spent it in a way it would benefit the people of Kaduna state.”