Date: 2021-08-21

The Kwara Consultative Stakeholders Forum, which sued the state governor, Abdulrazak AbdulRahman and others on the proposed N35billion bond/loan, has denied any connection with Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, a former governor of the state, in the suit.

The group, in a statement signed by its chairman, Alhaji Ayodele Olaegbe, said linking Saraki to the group is not only outrageous and demeaning but another failed effort by government propaganda machinery to deflect the general public from the issue of impropriety of the bond.

Olaegbe insisted that the group has no link, directly or indirectly, to the former Senate President or any individual or political interest.

The statement read in part, " the case reference number CAC/IT/NO 141207, at the federal high court, Abuja, is premised on our suspicion and conviction that a situation where a state appoints a Special Purpose Vehicle, SPV, to float a private bond is a strategy to avoid public scrutiny and suggests that the likely investors aren't inclined to be those that are statutorily bound to comply with the guidelines of transparency in financial transactions.

"We also believe that the bond/loan was hurriedly approved by the State House of Assembly and didn't go through established norms of legislative approval.

"Once a bond is sourced to carry out governance due to lack of funds, the people must be alive to participate in its process through public hearing.

"More importantly, this government is yet to explain to kwarans how it intends to balance the dispensation of the funds and repayment mode without subjecting the people to an additional hardship."

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