TheCable

Abdulaziz Yari, former governor of Zamfara state, says he left no debt or liability for the new administration in the state.

Yari made this known at a news conference held at the All Progressives Congress state secretariat in Gusau, the state capital, on Wednesday.

A transition committee set up by Bello Matawalle, governor of the state, had said Yari misappropriated N251 billion.

Ibrahim Wakkala, immediate past deputy governor of the state, chaired the committee.

Represented by Ibrahim Dosara, his media aide, Yari said the deputy governor’s claims were misleading and an attempt to smear his image.

He said he left N7 billion in the state coffers and had constructed roads across the 14 local government areas in the state.

“l want to make it categorically clear that the immediate past governor, His Excellency, Hon. Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar left no debt in the state when he handed over the leadership of the state to the government of Alhaji Bello Matawalle,” he said.

“The press briefing by the immediate past deputy-governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Wakkala, saying that Yari administration left a debt of over N251 billion, was misleading, misrepresenting and a calculated attempt to smear the good image of the former governor.

“We wonder why the committee failed to inform the world that Yari left N7 billion in the state coffers or that the former governor had constructed hundreds of kilometre roads cutting across all the 14 local government areas of the state as well as provision of other dividends of democracy.”

The former governor asked the major opposition party not to witch-hunt him but to focus on working for the progress of the state.