April 7, (THEWILL)- Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau state, has been extolled by a civil society group and anti-corruption crusader, Follow The Money, over his transparent and accountable handling of the palliative funds disbursed to his State.

Making the commendation of exemplary leadership and accountability, FTM noted that in the course of tracking the money disbursed to the 36 states of the federation, exploring the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, it had written to all the 36 state governors.
It noted that so far, only Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State obliged it with a response, followed by details of how the funds for the palliative intervention was disbursed and how the infrastructure intervention fund is being used.
According to the anti-corruption body, when it conducted independent research and verification checks in Plateau, it confirmed that Mutfwang acquitted himself in channelling and utilising the funds responsibly and in the public interest.
At the same time, Follow The Money, FTM, has accused the remaining 35 state governors in the country of continued  withholding of the N9 billion palliative and infrastructure development funds provided by the federal government, calling on them to follow the public service foot steps of their Plateau State counterpart.
FTM co-founder, Hamzat Lawal,  said Nigeria’s governors have kept sealed lips despite receiving N7 billion for infrastructure development and N2 billion as palliatives to cushion against the fuel subsidy removal.

Noting that the FTM, under the Freedom of Information, FOI, had sent requests to to all 36 governors to confirm their receipt of the money and the utilisation of the same, he said “after two weeks, I got a detailed correspondence from the executive governor’s office in Plateau State giving us details of the beneficiaries for the N2 billion and also details on how they were intending to spend the N7 billion on capital projects for infrastructural development.”

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According to Lawal, “we have also deployed people within Plateau State to go and verify one, those who were beneficiaries of the palliatives, and two, on the deployment for the infrastructural development projects.”

Regretting the failure of the 35 other governors to account for the money, Lawal said “as I speak to you, 35 state governors have not acknowledged, let alone provided information. Mind you, under the law, they are mandated to respond within seven days. But as I speak to you, they have not acknowledged ,let alone responded.”

“And they have collected N7 billion for infrastructural development and N2 billion for palliatives support for the removal of fuel subsidy which is N9 billion. Why are they not saying anything.  Why are they not accounting for this money”, he wondered.

“We cannot have 35 state Governors, who think that they are above the law. The FOI Act is clear: they are mandated and compelled to respond to us. This is worrisome. When you have executive Governors, who think that they have undertaken or have collected a state that is mired with debts behaving like this, it’s worrisome”, he said.

“When the minister of finance first made the announcement, some of them (Governors) came forward to say that they didn’t get the money. But now that they have all gotten the money, they have all kept mute, gone deaf – they don’t want to respond.Why?”, he queried.

“Obviously, there is something for them to hide because when public officials are not willing to give information, that is tantamount to corruption. That means they have something to hide. If they don’t have something to hide, like the Plateau State governor, they would have provided detailed information”, the FTM official said.

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