"Avengers Are Avenging Nothing" Says Governor Masari

The Katsina State Governor, Alhaji Aminu Masari, has said that the Niger Delta Avengers are championing unreasonable course.

He described members of the militant group as criminals who were avenging nothing.

Masari, who spoke in an interview with journalists on Friday in Abuja, lamented the rot in the local government system and stressed the need to reform it.

He said the rot was part of the issues discussed at Thursday’s National Executive Council meeting in Abuja.

Masari cited the case of Katsina State where workers in some local government areas had been collecting salaries from the time they were in primary school.

Masari said, “The local government system has been abused. Even, yesterday (Thursday), at the National Economic Council meeting, the issue was raised. The purpose for which local governments were created has been defeated. The local governments are supposed to initiate and promote activities that enhance daily living. As of today, local governments cannot repair dilapidated culverts.”

According to him, in one of the local governments in Katsina State, no fewer than 132 people who never showed up for work and were collecting salaries were uncovered.

The governor said, “Some of them are housewives based in Kano, Lagos and other places.  We discovered in one local government that one chieftain had 12 Automatic Teller Machine cards which he used to collect multiple salaries.

“We got somebody who claimed to be a religious leader and was collecting salary from a local government. He said he was feeding orphans.

 “We discovered that some of them have been collecting salaries since they were in the primary school.  Somebody, who has worked for 16 years and he is not more than 25 years. It means he has started collecting salaries since when he was in the primary school.”

On the state of the economy, Masari emphasised the need for diversification, saying Nigeria should not depend on one commodity.

He recalled that in 2014, the oil price was $114. According to him, the fall in the oil price is affecting other oil producing countries, including Saudi Arabia and Angola.