By John Mkom

JALINGO—Acting Governor of Taraba State, Alhaji Abubabar Danladi has accused the former acting governor of the state, Garba Umar of allegedly looting the state treasury to the tune of about N14 .9 billion.

Danladi made this known in a radio/television broadcast to the people on the present state of finances of the state.

The former acting governor was recently sacked by the Supreme Court, which reinstated Danladi who was wrongly impeached by the state House of Assembly in 2012 shortly before Governor Danbaba Suntai was injured in a plane crash.

The acting Governor said that before the involvement of Governor Suntai in the plane crash, the state government’s main account with Zenith Bank had surplus but now had debit of N7. 7 billion.

He further stated that loans in the state government main account stand at about N7.2 billion, bringing the state’s total indebtedness to about N14.9 billion.

The acting governor also accused Umar of mismanaging the state local government joint account which he said was overdrawn by about N700 million monthly since 2012 when he took over as the acting governor of Taraba State.

“You are aware that several development projects have stopped, PW Construction Company pulled out of the state months ago when government could not meet its obligations to it.

“The NYSC permanent orientation camp has been abandoned while the same fate stares the Nursing College project in the face. Even the Jalingo Motel is now overgrown by weeds as the workers have not been paid salaries for 11months.

“The same applies to casual workers engaged by the state government for the cleaning of Jalingo who have not been paid for over three months. The state littered with abandoned projects.

“Salaries for November have not been paid. We are already carrying a thorough review of the state of our finances and will quickly work out schemes with our bankers to ensure that civil servants are paid their salaries”