Former Governor of Zamfara state, Yari is still battling to cleanse himself of the mud which he rubbed himself when he dabbled into the coffers of Zamfara state when he was the sitting governor of the state.
During his political reign in the state as the Chief Executive Officer, allegations of misappropriation and outright looting of the state funds was more or less the other of the day.
But more notorious was the allegation of his pocketing N500 million naira of the Paris Club loan refund after payment by the federal government, apart from other such looting of public funds here and there, whose report were not so loud.
“Mr. Yari is accused of pocketing N500 million and $500,000 from the Paris Club refunds made available by the Federal Government, in favour of the 36 states of the federation,” so said one of the screaming headlines in the newspapers at the time of the disbursement of that money by the federal government, and at a time when he was also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum.
Yari bounced into action with a reply that, he would formally write the Federal Government to complain about the “antics” of the commission’s Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, against governors.”
But the fearless EFCC battled the governor. However, like the smart politician that he is, he fought doggedly back with his pocketed press.
Well we all know that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers, and that has been the lot of the poor communities in Zamfara state, who have been severally denied basic social amenities due to the steady looting of their collective public fund, all through the time that ex Governor Yari was in office.
Yari once told the EFCC trhat the agency does not know its work that it bounces into action on every petition sent to it. And the petitions against Governor Yari was indeed much.
There is no smoke without fire. And the poor infrastructural state that Yari left behind in Zamfara state speaks much of the financial havoc that ex Gov Yari left behind when he left office.
Even till now, the havoc has not been able to be remedied by the new government of Governor Matawalle.
Yari maybe walking about the place today, a free man, but his ghosts are troubling him along with his conscience. The Zamfara people are daily finding it embarrassing that their former governor committed so much financial atrocities against them and the state, and yet he is free and still lurking around the corridors of power, waiting to come and devour the state further of its resources.
But the ghosts have risen up to fight back too as the people of the state are daily summing up courage to challenge the governor over several amenities and infrastructures that he denied the people of during his days of looting the coffers of the state.
In May 2017 while in public office as Governor, Gov Yari was openly accused of building hotel with $3m Paris Club refund. Ofcourse, he rushed out to deny it.
“Governor Abdulaziz Yari is not building any hotel in Lagos nor were any monies stolen or embezzled from the Paris-London Club refunds to states or from any other source,” so his spokesman for this purpose said on his behalf. But the Zamfara people knew the truth and the truth is coming back to hunt Yari now.
Yari has murdered sleep and like the great philosopher and poet Williams Shakespeare wrote, he shall sleep now more.
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