From Francis Nansak ,Lafia
The Nasarawa State House of Assembly, has set up an adhoc committee to investigate N1billion secondary schools renovation contract awarded in 2018 by the state ministry of education, during which the current Secretary to the state government was the commissioner.
Honourable Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi, the Speaker of the House set up the committee when the Secretary to the State Government. (SSG), Alhaji Aliyu Ahmed Tijani and the Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Fati Sabo appeared before the House on Tuesday.
The speaker said that their appearances were to explain their roles on the utilization of the fund on renovation of secondary schools across the state as most of the projects were abandoned.
“After listening to the SSG, who was a former Commissioner for Education when the contract was awarded in 2018, which was completed up till this moment, It is in view of this that we are setting up an adhoc committee to investigate the projects in the interest of our children and overall development of the state.
“I urge the committee to do a thorough job as it is sad and unfortunate that our children in some secondary schools are learning under the trees,” he said.
The committee include the Chairman and members of the House Committee on Education, Chairmen of House Committees on Finance, Public Account and Works respectively.
Earlier, The SSG admitted that N1 billion was released in November 2018 by the state government to the ministry of Education for schools renovation purposes.
“Yes, the renovation work is on-going as the contract was given in 2018 when I was a commissioner for Education, ” he said.
On her part, the Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Fati Sabo also revealed that N84million was given to the ministry when she assumed office in 2019 to pay contractors for the same projects.
It would be recalled that on March 16th the House has summoned a former Commissioner of Education and now, the Secretary to the Government of Nasarawa State (SSG), Alhaji Aliyu Ahmed Tijani and Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Hajiya Fati Sabo over school abandoned projects awarded in 2018.
