Buhari Begs Senate To Pay Yahaya Bello’s Kogi N10.069bn

President Muhammadu Buhari has written the 9th Nigerian Senate, seeking approval for the payment of N10.069billion as settlement of promissory note to Governor Yahaya Bello’s Kogi State Government.

YaahooJournalist reports that this was made known in a letter sent to the Nigerian Senate by the President.

This online news platform understands that Buhari’s letter of request was read on the floor of the Nigerian Senate by Ahmad Lawan, the President of the Senate.

President Buhari’s request is coming a month to the Kogi governorship election which is slated for November 16 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The President’s letter was titled: “Request for the resolution of the National Assembly for the issuance of N10.069B promissory notes to Kogi State Government under the promissory note program and bond issuance to settle inherited local debt and contractual obligations of the Federal Government to refund the State on project executed by the State on behalf of the Federal Government.”

It read in part: “Based on my request for the resolution of the National Assembly approving the establishment of a promissory note program and the bond issuance to settle inherited local debts and contractual obligation by the Federal Government, the 8th National Assembly passed resolutions approving the issuance of the promissory notes to refund State Governments for projects executed on behalf of the Federal Government.”

The resolutions of the 8th Assembly were conveyed through three different letters from the Clerk of the National Assembly as follows:

“Letter dated 27th of July 2018, Ref: NASS/CNS/106/vol 10/277 which approved the issuance of promissory notes to 21 States.

“Letter dated January, 29th, 2019 Ref, NASS/CNS/106/vol 11/004 which approved the issuance of promissory notes to Delta and Taraba States.

“Letter dated May 23, 2019, with Ref: NASS/CNS/106/vol.11/164 which approved the issuance of promissory notes to Bauchi State.

“The three resolutions approved the issuance of promissory notes to 24 out of the 25 State Governments that requested and the only State for which approval has not been given is Kogi State with an outstanding claim of N10.069B.

“The Senate may wish to know that the claim of all the 25 States for project executed on behalf of the Federal Government were verified by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing and the Bureau of Public Procurement for which the Federal Executive Council approved the claims which they were forwarded for the approval of the National Assembly.

“The Senate will note that subsequent resolution of the National Assembly approving the refunds to the 24 State Governments, the Federal Government has issued promissory notes to all the 24 State Governments for the settlement of their claims.

“Accordingly the Senate is hereby requested to kindly approve the issuance of promissory notes in the sum of N10, 069, 692, 410.15 to Kogi State for projects executed on behalf of the Federal Government.

“While looking forward to the timely consideration for the refund to Kogi State.”

After reading the President’s letter on the floor of the Senate, the Senate President referred the request to the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debt for further legislative work and to report back to plenary in two weeks.