Senator Dino Melaye, yesterday affirmed that former governor of Kogi State and the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate in the last Saturday’s inconclusive election, Prince Abubakar Audu did not loot public funds while in office.
The late Audu was on March 18, 2013 arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, before an Abuja High Court on 36 count-charge bordering on criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of public funds to the tune of N10, 965,837,040.
The senator representing Kogi-West while speaking during a late show on the African Independent Television described the allegations as a witch-hunt.
According to Dino, “How can a man who received N17bn in less than four years steal N11bn? This was a man who paid pensioners, did not owe workers and carried out a big infrastructural development in the state. What has the EFCC been investigating since 2003? It is all politics. Audu never stole Kogi’s money. This was a man who built Kogi State University, Kogi State Polytechnic, Obajana Cement Factory and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Dangote Cement. Audu built all the institutions that exist in the state today.”
On the allegation that Audu was poisoned, Melaye said he would not comment on what he did not know.
Melaye said, ‘‘I cannot say he was poisoned. I will not say what I do not know. God is the only one who sees everything. I can only weep. For him, it was the end of a cycle.’’
He further stated that most of the politicians in the state were too elitist.
“Audu was the only politician who was down to earth in Kogi State. I was his closest political associate. He loved his people. He was a friend of the downtrodden. It will be difficult for any other governor to connect with the people like Audu did. A man who was ready to listen to bean cake sellers and cobblers was a man to be taken seriously,’’ Melaye added.
DAILYPOST
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