By Emmanuel Aziken & Henry Umoru

LAGOS — The Northern States Governors Forum, NSGF, has denied claims by Senator Shehu Sani, Vice-Chairman, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, alleging illegality in the move by the governors to obtain loans and other development assistance from the Islamic Development Bank, IDB.

Denying the claim of the senator that the governors were seeking the IDB facility without the consent of the Federal Government,  the Northern governors said the Federal Government gave approval and was part of the delegation of Northern governors to the meetings with the IDB in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Reacting through the chairman of NGSF, Governor Kashim Shettima, it said proper research by Senator Sani would have shown him that the Federal Government even procured the visas for the delegation and provided a senior officer to accompany the delegation to the Saudi trip.

Governor Shettima, through his spokesman, Mallam Isa Gusau, said: “Like Senator Sani said, it is true that the Federal Ministry of Finance is the body saddled with the statutory responsibility of facilitating all foreign loans and the Northern governors were very much aware of this as well as all the necessary steps they needed to take which they actually took, sufficiently.

“By way of background, the decision to seek the support of the IDB was reached at one of the governors’ meetings held at the end of September 2015 in Kaduna which was presided by Governor Shettima.

“In November, 2015, Governor Shettima, acting on behalf of the forum, wrote a letter to the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja, seeking consent and request for facilitation to the IDB.

“The Federal Ministry of Finance then wrote to the Islamic Development Bank in Jedda which culminated in the trip by the delegation of the Northern Governors on January 31, 2015.

“In fact, it was the Federal Ministry of Finance that obtained visas for the delegation of the Northern governors through its correspondences with the IDB. The IDB had written to the Saudi Government, and requested visas for the delegation which were then issued by the Saudi embassy in Abuja with all passports only released to the Federal Ministry of Finance in the third week of January 2015.

“It is also important to say that because the Northern Governors’ Forum was strict on due process, a Deputy Director at the Department of International Economic Relations, who is also the Desk Officer in charge of the Islamic Development Bank, IDB,  at the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja, was included by the Northern governors as part of their delegation.

“The inclusion of that Deputy Director was a novel step that made the entire trip a hitch free one given the fact that the Federal Ministry of Finance was not only directly involved in all the discussions held between the governors and top executives of the IDB but even provided all the policy guidelines required by the governors including addressing grey areas wherever they came up.”