The Kogi State Government says it spent the sum of N100 million on the construction and beautification of Lokoja Roundabouts in the year 2020.
In the state 2020 budget uploaded on its official website, the state through the Ministry of Works and Urban Development budgeted the sum of N100 million, an amount it said is for the construction and beautification of Lokoja Roundabouts.
Worse still, checks by MAWA Foundation, show there are new roundabouts in Lokoja the state capital that can engulf that amount of money while the city remains dirty and littered with potholes on the streets.
A senior official in the Ministry of Works and Urban Development who did not want his identity disclosed, told MAWA that budget-making in the state is just a mere tradition the state and its officials use as a justification to divert public funds and share among themselves.
He, however, added that a track of the Kogi state budget implementation will reveal projects that got allocations that were not implemented while the money cannot be accounted for by the government.
Another official in the ministry, while speaking to MAWA officials, accused the state government of refusing to implement budgets and conniving with some officials to divert and steal public funds that are ought to be used for development.
“Move around Lokoja and show me roundabouts that justify the state spending N100 million on them, this is just outright stealing with impunity,” the official told MAWA Foundation.
MAWA Foundation could not immediately reach out to the Kogi state government for a response.
