Date: 2017-12-07

The Kwara State Government, yesterday, denied the reports of putting its Kaduna liaison house up for sale.

It was reported that a case recently came up between the Kwara State Government and its Kaduna counterpart on the said property, located at Lugards house.

The Kwara liaison house was said to have been sold to a personality in the state at a give away price but the Kaduna State Governor, Nasiru el-Rufai reportedly put some obstacles to stop the sales of the giant house.

The report added that the state government instructed the media not to publicise the issue as frantic efforts are being made to settle the case out of court.

Speaking on the issue last night, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communications to the Kwara State Governor, Dr Muideen Akorede said there was no iota of truth in the report.

"The report is completely untrue. Nobody has the intention of selling any property. The liaison house and other property of the state government are still intact.

"What came up at the Supreme Court was a case between the Kwara State Government and its Kaduna State counterpart on another property being disputed. "Let me restate that the Kwara State Government under the leadership of Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed has not put up any of its property for sale," Akorede stated.

In another development, the Kwara State Government said it has released the sum of N378,426,018.04 as allocation for the fourth quarter of 2017 to six tertiary institutions in the state.

The state Commissioner for Finance, Engr Demola Banu, who made the disclosure on Tuesday, said following Governor Ahmed's approval, the institutions have received the funds.

The beneficiary institutions according to Banu are College of Education, Ilorin; College of Education, Oro; College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies (CAILS), Ilorin, College of Education (Technical), Lafiagi, School of Nursing, Oke-Ode and School of Midwifery, Ilorin.

A breakdown of the payment to the institutions shows that College of Education, Ilorin received N134,333,338.48, College of Education, Oro got N101,215,435.20, College of Education (Technical), Lafiagi received N79,701,804.00, while College of Arabic and Islamic Legal Studies (CAILS), Ilorin received N43,843,496.09.

School of Nursing, Oke-Ode got N7,729,637.62 and School of Midwifery, Ilorin received N11,602,256.65.

The Finance Commissioner expressed confidence that the release of the funds would assist the management of the institutions to clear the salary arrears owed their workers.

He also recalled that the state government had in August released the sum of N312million to the affected institutions as their third quarter subvention for the year.

The tertiary institutions had earlier in the year received a total of N204, 936, 393.62 from the State government as allocation for first and second quarters of 2017.

Banu assured that the state government would continue to support the institutions through regular provision of allocation to enable them meet their commitments.