Niger state governor, Abubakar Bello, says the N6 bn found in various accounts operated by a former Commissioner of Local Government in the state and ex PDP governorship candidate of the state, Kantigi Liman, belongs to the state government.

On April 11th, EFCC disclosed it had found N4 billion in two company accounts linked to Liman and another N2 billion was yesterday found in a UBA account linked to Liman.

In an interview with state house correspondents yesterday, Bello said the money belongs to the state government. According to him, the recovered funds is believed to have been diverted by the suspect through inflated hajj subsidies offered by the state government to pilgrims when he served as the Chairman of the Niger State Pilgrims' Agency.

"I'm aware that the EFCC is investigating the ecological funds. At the inception of this administration, we realised that the ecological funds disappeared. I did not have any evidence that it was utilised to address any ecological issues and we are faced with major ecological problems especially in Mokwa, Agaie, Bida, part of Minna, Rafin Gora and Mariga. We are doing our best to address the ecological problems. We need funds and unfortunately the N2 billion that was given to the state was not judiciously used to address the ecological challenges. If it had been used properly maybe our burden might have been reduced by now, but we are having sleepless nights over ecological issues and we are still approaching the Federal Government to assist us."he said