Fashola Is Bigger Than N78 Million, He Cannot Steal – Akabueze

Ben Akabueze, the former Lagos state commissioner for economic planning and budget, has said that N78m was too little for the former Lagos state governor, Babatunde Fashola to steal, The Punch reports.

He defended the former governor following allegations of financial impropriety levelled against the him.

According to information posted on the website of the state government, Fashola was reported to have spent N78.3m on the upgrade of his personal website, www.tundefashola.com, N139m on the construction of two boreholes at the Lagos House and over N600m on the renovation of a car park at the State House, Marina.

Akabueze, who was a guest on a programme on Channels Television titled, “Straight Talk with Kadaria,” said the annual budget of the state government was N400bn arguing that if Fashola wanted to steal, it would not be in millions.

While reacting to the allegations against Fashola, Akabueze who was a commissioner for over eight years, said: “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.”

Explaining the process through which funds were dispensed and contracts were awarded, Akabueze said the process was watertight such that it was almost impossible to divert public funds.

The former commissioner, said everything spent was included in the budget, admitting that some of the projects executed by the state government were done at high prices.

Akabueze who is also the presiding pastor, King’s Court Parish, Redeemed Christian Church of God, Victoria Island, justified the debt of over N419bn incurred by the administration of Fashola administration, saying that the state government by principle, only took loans to finance infrastructural projects.

He advised the federal government to take a cue from Lagos state government in the area of budgeting. He said the preparation of budget should be left in the hands of the Ministry of Economic Planning.

Recently Fashola’s controversial website, brfashola.org and twitter account were compromised, tweets and words about horoscope were put on the website. Words on his verified twitter page were all also written in Chinese.

As the screening of President Muhammadu Buhari ministers continue, some appointees reportedly failed to pass the anti-corruption test among them are Babatunde Fashola, Rotimi Amaechi and Kayode Fayemi.