Governor Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State, has dismissed claims by the former Deputy Governor of the state, Mr. Nuhu Audu Bajoga that the last government left over N8 billion as working money in the accounts of Kaduna State Government.

Speaking through his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, El-Rufai said: “Mukhtar Ramalan Yero’s government actually left the state in deficit and I will explain as follows.

“The Kaduna State Government had N228,333,371.67 in its central account on 29 May 2015.

“This represents the working capital that could be spent. All other items in the bank balance are committed funds, and are not available to be spent by government.

“These include counterpart and reserve funds clearly earmarked for specific purposes such as MDGs, SUBEB, Sure-P and state pensions, and as such cannot be termed available funds by any responsible government.

“It is pretty disingenuous to infer that a state that is in obvious dire straits has robust finances or to delude to a conclusion that N8 billion on paper is available in reality.

“Furthermore, the Mukhtar Ramalan Yero government that Bajoga served also incurred outstanding liabilities of N370m by May 2015, that effectively leaves the state in deficit as the working capital of slightly over N228m cannot cover the liability.”

On Verification of Kaduna State workers, El-Rufai said: “The Kaduna State Government’s verification processes are still ongoing, as poor record-keeping and deliberate attempts to conceal information about the exact financial status of the state have hindered the pace of work of the finance sub-committee of our Transition Committee. Once the verification process is concluded, the governor will address the state on the financial state of affairs, and will invite anyone with contrary evidence to disprove the analysis.

“As a consequence of the government’s conviction that the state is broke, it has decided to cut costs and focus the state’s resources on priority areas. That is why it has restructured ministries and cut the number of political appointees.

“The merchants of division who thrive in reading sectional motives to policy decisions will not deter this government from committing funds to building schools, hospitals and roads and providing security around state.”

•Photo shows Governor El-Rufai.