Lawal insists Matawalle piled up huge debts, says I’ve been running Zamfara on deficit

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Zamfara State Governor, Dauda Lawal has cried out that he has been running the state on deficit and debts.

He accused his predecessor, Bello Matawalle, of leaving only N4m in the state account.

Lawal spoke in an interview with BBC Hausa, saying four months salary of workersare in arrears and yet to be paid.

He said senior secondary school students in Zamfara State have not written the West African Examination Council, WAEC, and the National Examination Council, NECO.

He insisted, “I have been running the affairs of the state on debt since I assumed office as governor of Zamfara State. I met the treasury account of the state with no money. I only saw a single account with about N3 to N4 million in it.

“It is about three months now and we are yet to pay the salary of the workers. If you look at all the government agencies, the power supply to the buildings has been disconnected due to the hundreds of millions of debts incurred.

“The security agencies, for three months now, the allowance given to them for their daily operations has not been paid. Currently, students of senior secondary schools have not written their WAEC and NECO exams because the government is owing over one billion naira.”

He dismissed the claim of N20 billion being left in the state’s treasury. “When I heard that, I asked that they should come and show me the account, and make it public with evidence of the account where such an amount of money was kept.

“If I have that amount of money the previous administration is claiming they left for the state, I will pay all workers their salaries, and provide adequate funds to the security agencies for the protection of the state.

“The issue of water, there has been no water in Gusau for about four months now. I had to borrow to purchase the chemicals for the water. And pleaded with some Indians who gave the state some machines for water supply. If the state is to purchase those machines, it will cost over N200 million,” he said.

He, however, promised to pay the civil servants’ salaries before the observation of the Eid-l-Kabir festival.

Lawal said: “It depends on the amount of loan I’m able to secure. If what the state can afford to pay is the salary of one month, I will do my best to pay it as it is our duty to ensure that we are able to carry out our responsibilities of paying the workers what they worked for.”