Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa went on a spending spree after collecting 10 Billion Naira Paris Refund from the federal Government, spending a whopping sum of nearly N180m in “related salaries” for the “Restoration of Bank Verification Number (BVN) Issues” alone. N85,339,400.00 was paid out in April 2017 and N88,619,700.00 was paid out in May 2017, totalling N173,959,100.00.

In an expenditure breakdown titled, “Brief on Utilization of N10 Billion Refund to Delta state of 3rd Tranche Excess Deductions on Foreign Debt Servicing by the Federal Government,” presented on behalf of the State government by commissioner for Information Patrick Ukah, the profligate Delta State government claims to have spent the N10 billion Refund to the last kobo.

XCLUSIVE MAGAZINE contacted Mr Ukah by text to provide further details on how such humongous sum was expended in the restoration of Bank Verification Number (BVN) that would have ordinarily cost nothing, but he did not reply to our text message. However, a source inside the Government House who did not what to be named told XCLUSIVE MAGAZINE that “Screening was done for all Delta State workers for which they were asked to add their BVN to the form. The government needed to match the information workers submitted with their bank records. It helped fished out workers who falsified their age. It was an independent contractor that did this screening and he had to be paid from the Paris Refund.”

A banking expert dismissed the government insider’s BVN claim as “Nonsense talk,” insisting that “it was a way of giving out money to a crony-consultant pretending to help resolve BVN which is merely a verification of account numbers and tying them to the account holders and signatories. Restoration of a BVN involves no charge whatsoever.”...

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