₦35b Bond: Kwara Govt replies CSO

The Kwara Government has replied the request of Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD) for information concerning the proposed ₦35 billion Bond approved for the State Government by the House of Assembly.

The ENetSuD Coordinator, Dr Abdulateef Alagbonsi, confirmed receiving the response from the state Ministry of Finance in a statement on Thursday in Ilorin.

Dr Alagbonsi explained that in the response referenced F118/S.17/VOL.II/15, the ministry told the anti-corruption body that the Kwara State Proposed Bond has not been approved by the Security and Exchange Commission as at June 4, when the letter was written to us.

“Responding further, the Ministry told us that Section 39 (1) of the 1999 Constitution that we referred to in our request does not give us the leverage to secure the specific information we requested for.

“The Ministry stated further that the Section relates to Freedom of Expression and the Press, not Freedom of Information.

“It will be recalled that we wrote to the Ministry to request information related to the detailed budget of the projects that the bond is proposed for, including the name of each project, the amount budgeted for each project.

“The contract sum of each project, the location of each project, and the executing Ministry, Department and Agency of each project);

“The project codes, names of projects, and other information on the projects that the bond will be used for as contained in the approved 2021 budget,” Alagbonsi said.

He explained that other information sought by the anti-corruption body included the proposed payment plan for the bond; the detailed information on any loan approved for the state government in the 2021 budget (aside from the bond); the debt profile of the KWSG, among others.