THE Sokoto State government has recovered 70 out of 745 vehicles said to be in the possession of former government officials in the state.
The chairman of the Committee for the Review of Wasteful and Unnecessary Government Assets, Alhaji Jelani Kalgo, disclosed this while presenting the interim report of the committee to Governor Ahmed Aliyu on Thursday.
According to him, 745 vehicles were identified by the committee.
He said, “302 vehicles were in the possession of former Commissioners, Special Advisers and Chief Executives while 443 were in the possession of local government areas.
“We have so far retrieved 32 vehicles from former government officials, including Commissioners, Special Advisers and Chief Executives of Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
“We went round all the 23 local government areas and found out that 70 percent of the 443 vehicles there were grounded.
“And the committee had discovered that about 40 vehicles were released on hire to private individuals and were taking beyond the boundaries of the local government areas; some beyond the boundary of the state and some beyond the boundary of Nigeria to as far as Niger Republic.
“The vehicles include 6 graders, 6 pay loaders, 3 rollers, 9 tippers, 4 water tankers and 2 fire service tankers among others. This is very disturbing.
“We have invited all the stakeholders, including the local government chairmen, works supervisors and even the beneficiaries and we succeeded in retrieving 35 heavy duty vehicles.
“Your Excellency, some of these vehicles were found hidden in five places in the state metropolis.”
Kalgo noted that the recovery could have been more but for shortage of fund and lack of court order.
He further disclosed that the committee was able to discover a government property sold at the cost of N60 million and only N30 million were accounted for.
Responding, Governor Aliyu thanked the committee for a job well done and assured them that the government would study their report and take the necessary actions.