Former information minister Labaran Maku has kicked against the planned sale of Nasarawa State assets in Lafia, Lagos, Kaduna and Jos.
mr Maku also lashed at the state’s lawmakers for approving the proposal.
“It is unbelievable that a government that has not added anything to the state is poised to sell the assets put together by its predecessors; this is shocking and sad,” Maku said on Monday in Wakama.
He particularly condemned the lawmakers’ quick endorsement of the proposal by the state government “without organising any public hearing or debate to gauge the feelings of the people, who are the owners of the assets”.
The lawmakers had, on September 25, approved Governor Tanko Almakura’s request to sell Nasararwa State’s properties in Lagos, Jos, and Kaduna, citing their continued dilapidation and deterioration.
But Maku, who is the National Secretary of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, said that the legislature ought to have been more critical of the governor’s motives.
He alleged that the legislature had become a “mere rubber stamp” to the executive, and called on the National Assembly to intervene on the matter “in the interest of peace and development”.
Describing the move as “uncalled for”, he wondered why the state government would sell the assets when it had not accounted for how it expended loans, bailout funds and Paris Club refunds collected from the Federal Government.
“If past governors had sold these assets, will they still be there? Viable assets are being sold by a government that is building an airport that is not viable. This is very strange.
“As a Nasarawa State citizen and an official of APGA, I reject the sale of these assets; I have spoken with many other citizens and they all feel that the sale is unnecessary,” he said.
He said that the ideal thing would have been to call for a public hearing on the proposal to determine whether or not it was beneficial to the public.
“With the approval of the sale of the assets, everybody in Nasarawa State is in pain; everybody sees the approval as a slap on his or her face and believe that it should not be allowed to stand,” he said.
Mr Maku advised banks, public and private companies and Nigerians no to participate in the sale of the assets because the transaction was not in the interest of the state.
NAN
