A chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and former governor of Zamfara State, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima, has faulted the allegation of corruption brought against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC).

 
Last week, the ICPC arraigned Yerima for mismanaging a N1bn loan meant for the repair of Gusau Dam in 2006.
But his lawyer, Mahmoud Magaji, said an internal loan of N1bn was approved as part of the consolidated revenue fund to be used to finance the budget by the State house of Assembly.

Magaji said that the state agriculture ministry in its reply to a letter dated February 6th, 2007 by Yerima turned down the request to buy 50, 000 metric tonnes of grains and instead decided to buy 20,000 metric tonnes.

 
Yerima is contesting the allegation contained in the charge that he sold the grains.
According to him, the letter from the federal ministry of Agriculture approving the purchase of the grains from.Zamfara state was on July 17, 2007, about two months after he had left office.

 
It would be recalled that the ICPC has already filed 19 charges against the ex-governor.

 
According to the charges filed against him, Yerima allegedly diverted N425,491,736.75 from the N1bn for other purposes, including assistance to the Independent National Electoral Commission, furniture allowance, consultancy fee, Ramadan feeding, Hajj and purchase of cars.

 
The charges also revealed that the former governor used the sum of N574,508,263.25 for flood disaster related matters.

Credit : Today.ng