Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, has attacked past governments for failing to access N5.3 billion Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) fund to improve education.
Mr AbdulRazaq said this in a statement on Friday by his spokesman, Rafiu Ajakaye.
He said the government had a total of N5,385,619,303.68 at the UBEC not accessed since 2014.
The spokesman said the governor got to know of the fund not accessed when he visited UBEC on Thursday in Abuja.
AbdulRazaq said UBEC would blacklist the state, alleging that the immediate past administration mismanaged N1.5 billion grant meant to upgrade schools in Kwara in 2013.
Mr Ajakaye said UBEC officials told AbdulRazaq that N1.5 billion was allotted to the state in 2013 with a request for the state to pay another N1.5 billion as counterpart funding.
“The officials said the government was later discovered to have borrowed the N1.5 billion from a bank with which it immediately accessed the UBEC fund.
“Upon receipt of the UBEC’s N1.5 billion, Kwara returned the N1.5 billion it had borrowed from the bank and then diverted the UBEC’s N1.5 billion without investing it in educational infrastructure as required by the law,” he said.
Ajakaye said Kwara later refunded N1.050 billion leaving an outstanding of N450 million which the Abdulfatah Ahmed’s administration never paid to UBEC.
In 2014, UBEC allocated N952.2 million to Kwara, 876.7 billion in 2015, in 2016 Kwara was to access N1.04 billion, N1.3 billion in 2017 and N1.5 billion in 2018.
Ajakaye, however, said AbdulRazaq has promised to pay the N450 million to enable the state to access the funds to develop its schools.
