In anticipation of the November 16 Bayelsa Governorship election, Yekini Nabena, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, APC, tells the Federal Government that necessary caution must be taken ahead of the governorship polls.
According to Nebana, releasing the sum of N7 billion to State Government as refund for Value Added Tax, VAT, may be diverted and used for vote buying.
In his statement, he urged the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, to delay the approval of the fund until the election is concluded.
“There is a N7 billion VAT refund to Bayelsa State awaiting the Minister of Finance’s approval. The Governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, has committed to a commercial bank to give him the N7 billion with an agreement that the Ministry will in turn pay the money to them”, Nabena siad.
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“The Minister is advised not to approve the VAT refund until after the governorship election. Governor Dickson has recently been in the news on account of several schemes to raise money through diversion of state funds to fund the election of his stooge and Bayelsa governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP.
“Bayelsans are still smarting from the exposed plan of Governor Dickson to sell off an oil field, Atala Marginal Field (OML 46) belonging to the state, months to the his handover. Governor Dickson must be stopped from achieving his selfish and desperate plan to buy votes using state funds and rig the election in favour of his unpopular candidate,” Nabena added.