A
abujagirl
Guest
Ben Akabueze, immediate past Lagos State Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget has spoken in defence of former Governor Babatunde Fashola, who is been accused of looting state funds.
Speaking during a programme on Channels Television titled, ''Straight Talk with Kadaria'', Akabueze said N78m was too little for the former governor to steal.
''Unfortunately, by the time this thing came up, I was no longer in government. So, I don’t have access to the paperwork which is the basis on which this project was justified.
''But as far as I know, I believe that it must have followed the same process of independent evaluation. I think it would be useful for people to look at the full scope of the project and then make a determination about whether or not it did not represent value for money.
''We ran an annual budget of over N400bn. I think that if he (Fashola) really wanted to steal money, it wouldn’t be N78m out of over N400bn that he had access to. Of course, every kobo of public funds must be accounted for and I hope in the future, we can get the full facts and it will be made available to the public''.
Speaking during a programme on Channels Television titled, ''Straight Talk with Kadaria'', Akabueze said N78m was too little for the former governor to steal.
''Unfortunately, by the time this thing came up, I was no longer in government. So, I don’t have access to the paperwork which is the basis on which this project was justified.
''But as far as I know, I believe that it must have followed the same process of independent evaluation. I think it would be useful for people to look at the full scope of the project and then make a determination about whether or not it did not represent value for money.
''We ran an annual budget of over N400bn. I think that if he (Fashola) really wanted to steal money, it wouldn’t be N78m out of over N400bn that he had access to. Of course, every kobo of public funds must be accounted for and I hope in the future, we can get the full facts and it will be made available to the public''.