Sokoto State government says of the 745 vehicles said to be in possession of former government officials, 70 have been recovered.
Alhaji Jelani Kalgo, Chairman of the Committee for the Review of Wasteful and Unnecessary Government Assets, made the disclosure while presenting the interim report of the committee to Governor Ahmed Aliyu on Thursday, saying that 745 vehicles were identified by the committee.
He said that 302 vehicles were in the possession of former Commissioners, Special Advisers and Chief Executives, while 443 were in the possession of local government areas.
The chairman said, “We have so far retrieved 32 vehicles from former government officials, including Commissioners, Special Advisers and Chief Executives of Ministries, Departments and Agencies.”
He explained that they went round all the 23 local government areas and found out that 70 percent of the 443 vehicles there were grounded.
He noted that the committee discovered that about 40 vehicles were released on hire to private individuals.
He said the vehicles include 6 graders, 6 pay loaders, 3 rollers, 9 tippers, 4 water tankers, 2 fire service tankers, among others.
Jelani explained that they have “invited all the stakeholders, including the local government chairmen, works supervisors and the beneficiaries; and we succeeded in retrieving 35 heavy duty vehicles.”
He disclosed that some of the vehicles were found hidden in five places in the state metropolis.
He explained that the recovery could have been more but for shortage of funds and lack of a court order, stressing that the committee was able to discover a government property sold at the cost of N60 million but only N30 million was accounted for.
Governor Aliyu thanked the committee for a job well done and assured them that the government would study their report and take the necessary actions.
