Culled from the Vanguard

Jos – Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong has described as “laughable, malicious, mischievous and a figment of the writer’s imagination”, a recent story credited to an online media outfit, alleging that he was duped of the sum of N5billion in Dubai while trying to buy property there.‬

In a statement issued Monday in Jos and signed by the Governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Mark Longyen, he stated the story was a mere piece of thrash that should be consigned to the dustbin of oblivion and ignored by reasonable people. He noted that the story is the handiwork of his detractors and opposition political elements desperate to paint him black adding that such report is false in its entirety and challenges the authors of the story to produce and publish documentary evidence, if any, from the records of their investigation and show proof as to when and where the N5billion Dubai property transaction took place. ‪

The statement stressed, “Ordinarily, the Governor would have ignored such malicious falsehood which, if read between the lines, is clearly the handiwork of his detractors and opposition political elements desperate to paint him black, but has chosen to respond to it in order not to give credibility to such brazen falsehood and to clear the air for the sake of some gullible members of the public, who might innocently swallow this bait hook, line and sinker. ‪”The Governor, therefore, denies this wanton, malicious and mischievous report in its entirety and challenges the authors of the story to produce and publish documentary evidence, if any, from the records of their investigation and show proof as to when and where the five billion naira Dubai property transaction took place, which bank was used, as well as all the parties involved, failing which they will face the music as relevant security agencies will be called in to investigate the source of the story.‬” ‪The statement further wondered “what kind of a professional journalist would credit the source of his story ‎to information he/she claimed to have only picked “from an open discussion at a public centre,” if the author is not a quack and a harbinger of a hatched job aimed mainly to impugn the integrity of the Governor and bring him to disrepute.‬” ‪He admonished the public to beware and not fall victims of such malicious reports emanating from such unregulated online media outfits “that may be sponsored and disseminated by past government officials who are being investigated for corruption.”

ViewPointNigeria Analysis

It is easy to get sentimental about a story like this and in typical fashion, call the government corrupt and reckless – but having seen the press release, ViewPointNigeria undertook analysis to determine the veracity of the story.

And after analysing some basic facts and figures we have concluded that it is unlikely that this is the case. Mark the use of words here – “unlikely”. So our assertions do not suggest that it cannot happen, but that the likelihood of pilfering N5 billion from the Plateau economy at these dire financial times will be highly improbable. Of course  appropriating smaller sums (running into several hundreds of Naira) is possible, but large sums to the tune of N5 billion is highly unlikely. To illustrate this point, if N5 billion is pilfered from the Plateau economy at these dire times, the economic shocks and strains will be unprecedented – principally because of the already dire state of things, where salaries are outstanding, projects are abandoned and cash flow is constrained.

To explain further, since taking over as Governor in 2015, the average state subvention to Plateau has been approx. N1.4 billion monthly, with internal generated revenue (IGR) at approx. N800 million per month. But even so, the IGR is not accessible, because it was already tied to a bond from previous borrowings and so essentially, the only revenues that accrue to Plateau – as far as we know is the subvention and of course other fringe loans collected.

By our estimation, since coming to office Governor Lalong would have collected approx. N19 billion (approx. 1.5 billion per month) from the federal government as subvention. With the monthly civil servants salary bill at 1.6 billion per month (he would have paid approx. 8 instalments of salaries with 5 months outstanding). Bear in mind Lalong came into government inheriting 7 month outstanding salaries too – for that he obtained a loan of 9.5 billion to clear that loan, see our earlier report on this at;

http://www.viewpointnigeria.com/plsg-secures-n9-5-billion-loan-to-pay-arrears-of-salaries-and-pensions/

Following that loan, Lalong has subsequently requested a N10 billion loan from FG to finance ongoing road projects. That request was queried by the House of Assembly, but subsequently approved, see ViewPointNigeria’s report on:

http://www.viewpointnigeria.com/plateau-house-of-assembly-approves-lalongs-n10-billion-loan-request/

Given the above sums and the very challenging state of Plateau finances we analyse that it is highly unlikely that such large sums can be taken out of the Plateau economy without some sort of financial blackhole developing. It is not to say that smaller sums cannot be misappropriated, but certainly N5 billion is highly improbable.

As such our verdict on this allegation is that it lacks substance.

count | 357

Fraud: Lalong denies being duped of N5 billion in Dubai