Audu, with his running mate, Abiodun Faleke

All Progressives Congress  candidate for the 21 November Kogi state governorship election, Prince Abubakar Audu  has spoken on the N11 billion allegedly looted by him.

Responding to  questioning tweets sent to  him by Nigerians using the hashtag #AskAudu, he  said the allegation was concocted by the Peoples Democratic Party in order to seize power from him in 2003. According to him all the Federal allocations that he received during his four year tenure was N16.8 billion, which he claimed were judiciously spent on a number of projects, which are still standing in the state today.

He wondered how he could have stolen N11billion out of N16.8 billion!

Here is his response verbatim:

“When I was in office between 1999 – 2003, we received average monthly allocation of N350 million – about N16.8 billion for the entire 4 years of my tenure. With these, we paid all salaries, we built Kogi State University, Obajana Cement Factory (now owned and run by Dangote Cement), Confluence Beach Hotel, Stella Obasanjo Library, Paparanda Square, Govt. House (Lugard) House, Government Office, secretariat, the banquet hall, started the confluence stadium and built the Lokoja township stadium. Others are the Fed. Medical Centre + equipped same with 25 state-of-art ambulances, NTA Kogi, Radio Kogi, Kogi Graphics Newspaper, 75 rural electrification projects, the presidential lodge, Governor’s lodge, Abuja, inter-state roads; We also built the specialist eye centre, commissioner’s quarters, 200 housing units, just to mention a few. In 2002, the Fed. Govt. instituted a panel to evaluate and reward performance. Out of 12 awards for the 36 state governors, I won 7 awards. Now, how could all these have been achieved?

“When the then ruling People’s Democratic Party saw me as a threat, they started instigating Kogites against me, and when the people couldn’t buy into that, having known the truth, they orchestrated my arrest, which led to my being dragged before the ICPC, CCB, CCT and EFCC.

Prince Abubakar Audu: I didn’t steal N11billion

“When all that failed, the then PDP led Kogi state government took over and issued a white paper, banning me from politics for 10years. I proceeded to court, and the court ruled that the Kogi government has no such right to ban me from politics.   

“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has also taken me to 7 courts in total (4 in Kogi and 3 in Abuja). In each of these cases, they’ll always pull out before judgment is passed and go back to frame up new figures; I was 1st accused of stealing N1.5b, then N4b, then N8b and finally N11 billion. It’s also on record that I was the most pursued politician by the EFCC, as the PDP wanted my head at all cost – always during elections.

“And so I ask all Kogites and Nigerians, how could my administration have achieved all we did with less than N6 billion, if N11 billion was missing? Again only the work I did in Kogi State stands there today. The PDP govt. since I left office, has received about N550 billion, without accounting for it.

“So the questions should be where have these funds gone? Why are Kogites still languishing in abject poverty? Why is Lokoja the dirtiest state capital in Nigeria? Why has EFCC been mute? Clearly the PDP led EFCC had a different agenda. I leave these thoughts to my fellow Kogites to mull over and ponder. The truth is out there for those who care to know but my happiness is that all well-meaning Kogites know the truth and have pledged to support me and the APC to victory ahead of the November 21 Governorship election, as I promise to do even more, when we eventually take up power.”