Once again, Lai Mohammed has indulged in lies on behalf of his lying party, the APC, Chief Communications Manager to Kogi State Governor, Phrank Shaibu, has said.
Reacting to Mohammed’s remarks regarding the delay of Kogi state bailout funds, Phrank said he exhibited high level ignorance or acted ostensibly to deceive Nigerians yet again. First off, I wish to state that, Lai Mohammed is the spokesperson of the APC and not the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. As such, he cannot appropriately defend an issue that he lacks capacity and credible information on.
He stated further, “It would be recalled that a few days ago, the APC through one Tom Ohikere, in its usual practice of using falsehood to mislead the Kogi electorate announced that the Kogi state government as led by His Excellency, Captain Idris Wada never applied for bailout funds. Unfortunately, when the Kogi state Government presented facts to debunk the APC lies, the party never responded.
“What Lai Mohammed has just done in this instance by stating that the Kogi state government has not ‘justified its request for bailout fund’ is to intentionally stir up a fake framing of a situation by lying to cover up his Party’s previous lies.
“The truth is that the APC cannot keep straight its story on the delay of Kogi State bailout funds by President Buhari’s administration. For avoidance of doubts, the state Kogi state government has conducted its request for bailout funds with considerable sincerity and the CBN has not advanced any convincing argument for its continual refusal to disburse the funds, other than the state government’s findings regarding the APC’s interference as the nation’s ruling party. For emphasis, the Kogi state government has met all the perquisite conditions for the disbursement of the bailout funds including furnishing the CBN with the Bank Verification numbers of all the proposed beneficiaries of the fund, yet the CBN has not released the funds. What this clearly means is that the APC has been deceitful.
“Lai should stop displaying crass ignorance by talking about the figure of N50bn. So, he is not aware that, a state’s debt profile to commercial banks in Nigeria determines how much of the bail fund the state can access? It is a shame too that,he does not know that, the lower the debt profile a state, the higher the volume of funds the state can access and vice -versa. The Debt Management Office ,an organ responsible for restructuring of commercial bank debts of state governments and other agencies can avail him the fact that Kogi has the lowest debt profile to commercial banks of N745bn among the 36 states in Nigeria.
“Isn’t it curious too that a Lai Mohammed is questioning how much are going to our Local Government areas? Why didn’t he question his APC controlled state in neighboring Nassarawa that got more funds for the Local Government Councils to offset salary areas than what was meant for the same purpose in the state civil service?
“Anyway, we have said it before and we will say it again: these people have become prisoners of their own delusions; they have become victims of their own phantasms and chimeras. The prayer from the unpaid civil servants has made them unreasonable such that they are sleeping and hiding under their beds. They are running from their own shadows and what we are seeing is simply the judgment of God on them. They have lost their peace. They are running when nobody is chasing them and that is why they are saying these things.
“The Kogi State government is not oblivious of the fact that the APC’s connection with Mr. Audu Abubakar, its candidate in the forthcoming governorship election, an alleged criminal under trial by the EFCC for stealing over 11 billion naira from the same Kogi state government has generated public anger. Nevertheless, His Excellency, urges the good people of Kogi state to remain law abiding and supportive of his administration as the marginalization of the Kogi people by the President Buhari’s led administration for not accepting the imposition of Mr. Audu as governor is best addressed through their votes as the delay of their entitlements cannot last forever.
“His Excellency reaffirms that one certain outcome from Mr. Audu’s participation in Kogi election is the greater certainty that Nigeria’s ruling APC party is double dealing and engaging in iniquity in its fight against corruption. His Excellency expressed appreciation to the media for exposing the many twists in fighting corruption as shown in Mr. Audu’s case for the world to see that the APC is not doing what it campaigned upon and promised Nigerians.”
