The Northern Governors have labeled the reaction of the Vice Chairman, Senate committee on Foreign and Domestic Debts, Senator Shehu Sani to the plan by the governors to get loans from Islamic Development Bank in Jedda- as ‘purely based on lack of the slightest knowledge about the issue.’
Sani had declared that the efforts of the Northern Governors to obtain the said loan bordered on illegality. He stated that the governors had no right to be soliciting for loans without federal approval.
“Governors of the northern states cannot just jet out to Saudi Arabia to solicit or collect loans without following the due process of the law and the law further states that state governments and their agencies wishing to obtain external loans shall obtain federal government’s approval in principle from the Federal Ministry of Finance”, he had said.
The Governors refuted the senator’s claim, stating that the trip to the Islamic Development Bank in Jedda was not only approved by the Federal Ministry of Finance, but also facilitated by the said ministry.
They further revealed that the ministry sent its representative along as part of the delegation.
The Northern Governors revealed this in a statement put out on Monday, February 15.
The statement was signed by Mallam Isa Gusau, spokesperson to Governor of Borno State and Chairman of the 19 Northern States Governors’ Forum, Kashim Shettima.
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