Sokoto State Governor, Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto, has denied taking any foreign loans for executive developmental projects for the state.
He made this known while reacting to a BBC Hausa Service report aired earlier today in which Sokoto was listed among the Northern States that have taken loans to execute developmental projects.
The governor, who expressed dismay over the inclusion of Sokoto State among the Northern States in the loan issue, said his administration has never received any loan from anybody from within or outside the country.
“Let me make it categorically clear that I have never taken a loan from anybody since we came on board.
“I was shocked when I heard my state was listed among the northern states that have collected foreign loans in order to develop their states.
‘”The BBC report was indeed misleading, and I expect them to verify the information they claimed to have gotten from the debt management service before going on air.
“I challenge any individual or body that has any record of where we applied for or received any foreign or local loans to produce the document.
“You can’t take a loan without following certain procedures, including seeking approval from your state lawmakers; in our case, there is nothing like that, he declared.
The governor further said that all the projects he has executed across the length and breadth of the state were funded through the monthly allocation from the federation account or the money realised from state-generated revenue.
“For now, we don’t need any loans before we execute projects because we are managing the little resources of the state very well,” he said.
It could be recalled that the BBC Hausa service earlier on Monday reported that the Sokoto State government is among the Northern States that have taken foreign loans to execute developmental projects.
It was wrongly reported that the present administration has taken a foreign loan amounting to 489 million dollars to execute meaningful projects across the State.
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