Governor Abdulrahaman Abdulrazak of Kwara State has disclosed why former Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki was not arrested over the N1.5B UBEC fund that was allegedly diverted for private use by previous administrations under Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)in the state.
He said this weekend while launching the Campaign Council Secretariat of Kwara Central Senatorial candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) Mallam Saliu Mustapha at Basin, in Ilorin.
Governor Abdulrazak told the audience that he found some claims made by some opposition candidates laughable and quite unbelievable.
He particularly took a swipe at the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and other opposition candidates in the state, asking the basis of their confidence to take on the ruling party at the polls.
Taking a dig at the PDP, the governor wondered why a party like PDP should have the temerity to contest elections in the state when most of their men should be answering to the different charges of financial malfeasances committed while in power.
“But for their boss being the Senate President at the time, most of these characters would have been in jail for the UBEC money they stole,” explained the governor.
According to him, “for seven years, the state was blacklisted by the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, over alleged fraudulent diversion of its funds meant for Kwara schools by the previous administration under PDP.”
The governor, asking UBEC officials why the matter wasn’t reported to the relevant security agency, said that he was told that the fear of the PDP leader at the time the Senate President made the commission back out of taking such action.
“UBEC officials said that if they had taken the matter to EFCC, the commission might begin to have problems getting their budget approved at the Senate,” Abdulrazak said.
