N11 billion refund is arrant nonsense - Prince Audu

Prince Abubakar Audu

Ex-Kogi State Governor and All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate Prince Abubakar Audu has dismissed reports credited to the state chairman of the party that he would return N11billion to the state’s coffers if elected.

A visibly angry Audu told reporters at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja after a closed meeting with the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state wrote the report to discredit him.

Reports in online media quoted Kogi State APC Chairman, Alhaji Hadi Ametuo, of assuring the people that Prince Audu would return the over N11 billion he allegedly stole while in office, if re-elected.

Audu, who was confident of winning the election, said: “That is arrant nonsense. It is the PDP in Kogi State that is spreading the rumour and it will not help the members.”

Media reports last week quoted the Kogi State APC Chairman, Alhaji Hadi Ametuo, assuring Kogi people that his party’s candidate in the forthcoming governorship poll, Prince Audu Abubakar, would return the over N11 billion he allegedly stole while in office.

Responding to the questions from the media regarding Audu’s 11billion naira EFCC case, Ametuo reportedly said “Nobody is a saint. No governor can claim he has not done any malpractice or stolen anything during his time in the office.

“We heard of Saraki’s case, even Tinubu is being accused of stealing funds but the truth is that Prince Abubakar Audu has pledged to return the money to the Kogi treasury when he gets elected on the November 21st, yes he will return the 11billion naira or even more than that and that will add to the Kogi economy,” Ametuo added.

Ametuo, who rated Audu’s first term in office more than the current government of Capt. Idris Wada, is yet to confirm or deny media reports attributed to him over the refund matter.

Audu is being prosecuted by the anti-graft agency, EFCC, for misappropriating N11 billion of the states’s funds while he was governor between 1999 and 2003.