Governor Masari freezes all government accounts in Katsina

4 hours ago

Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State has directed the immediate closure of all government accounts in the state including those of elected councils chairmen in all the 34 local government areas of the state, Vanguard
reports.

The decision was informed by an alleged
report of massive looting of public funds particularly at the council levels by some elected officials perceived to be loyal to the immediate past governor, Ibrahim Shehu Shema.

One of the aggrieved council chairmen who pleaded anonymity to the newspaper that the governor’s action of freezing the accounts was done in bad

faith, adding that “we were all elected by the people and duly sworn into office. So, I cannot understand the rationale he is using in freeze our accounts. Just as he is in charge of the state, so are we at the local levels.

“He should reverse the directives
immediately because we are elected council officials. “Let him restrict the order to agencies, ministries and parastatals headed by political appointees and leave us alone,” the council boss said.

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Friday, 12 June 2015 El-Rufai Speaks About Buhari's Directive To Governors

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed state governors across the country to visit prisons and reduce the number of inmates to the barest minimum. This was disclosed by Malam Nasir el-Rufai, the Kaduna state governor during a working visit to the state convict prison, Leadership reports.

According to him, it is injustice for a person to spend many years in prison in the name of awaiting trial in Nigerian courts. “This is why President Buhari directed all governors to undertake such visits so that, working together with the Ministry of Justices and the Prison authorities, we’ll ensure we do something about it,” he said.

He added that he would do his best to ensure that the people who have been wrongly imprisoned and awaiting trial get justice. In his remark, Mr. Abubakar Garba, the state controller of prison, pointed out that the convict prison which had the capacity of 547, is now housing over 1,000 inmates.

Garba told the governor that the prison had only two functional vans for conveying about 800 awaiting trial inmates, and according to him, this portends danger to people of the state. He also begged el-Rufai to commute the death sentences of 11 inmates, who were indigenes of Kaduna state to life imprisonment. Report had earlier surfaced that Governor el-Rufai begged members of the House of Assembly for a reduction in his salary and allowances to give room for fund raising aimed at tackling the current economic woes of the state.