11th February, 2020
The Zamfara State Projects Verification Committee on Tuesday alleged that the immediate past administration of former Gov. Abdulaziz Yari spent N3 billion on the ongoing Zamfara State University project.
The university project is sited at Yari’s home town, Talata Mafara.
The Chairman of the committee, Alhaji Ahmad Zabarma, made the disclosure at the presentation of the interim report of the committee at the Government House, Gusau.
Zabarma disclosed that N3 billion was allegedly paid to various contractors for the projects by the previous administration which reflected 40 per cent down payment of the total cost of the contract.
He said: “It is very unfortunate that when our committee visited the site of the project it is only 30 per cent completion which is less than the amount being paid by the government.
“We noticed over-inflation of the contract sum, we are advising the state government to review the contract to recover government’s fund from the contractors”.
Zabarma, however, advised the government to continue with the project to ensure that the state also has its own university, noting that Zamfara is the only state in the country without its own university.
The chairman added that the committee also discovered N70 billion meant for the state House of Assembly renovation project which had not been done.
“We discovered the record of N70 million construction project but nothing has been done,” the committee said.
Zabarma revealed further that the committee equally discovered over-inflation of N90 billion from the various contracts awarded by the immediate past administration between 2011 to date through administration, social and economic sectors of the state.
“We recommend that the state government should find ways of recovering its money from whoever found whether construction company, political, civil servants or individuals,” he added.