As Nigerians prepare for the 2023 Sallah celebration, a Kogi businessman, Mohammed Aliyu Yahaya has cried out that the survival of his home is at stake over a debt of N7,565,000 owed him by the Chairman of Okene Local Government, Abdulrazaq Muhammad.
Yahaya, a resident of Lokoja, who said the debt was from a supply of rams to the local government in 2018, appealed to Governor Yahaya Bello and the public to prevail on the Chairman.
Within the five years of the unpaid debt, he said he had written the Office of the Governor, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, and other stakeholders of the government to no avail.
“As an unemployed graduate, I struggle very hard to source for money to do any type of legitimate businesses that will bring income for me to maintain my family including my extended families. So, I am always struggling to survive the harsh reality of living from hand to mouth.
“One of the businesses that I borrow money to do especially during seasonal festivals, is Ram business. I sourced for money then travel to Kano State to buy rams and bring down to Lokoja to sell. That is how I supplied Okene Local Government Area rams in 2016 and 2017 and I was paid.
“Thereafter, in year 2018 I supplied them the same rams at the total cost of Seven Million, five Hundred and Sixty Five Thousand Naira (N7,565,000) and five (5) years after the Okene LGA is yet to pay me,”he stated.
He disclosed that as a result of the financial embarrassment the debt has caused him, his wife left his house with his children as he was unable to discharge his duties to them as a husband and father.
He begged Governor Yahaya Bello to direct thr Chairman to pay his money so that he can start all over again and return his family home.
“I know you are a Governor with a human feeling who loves to see families happy. I know too that you know what it means to be in a helpless situation where one can not earn a decent living to provide for his loved ones. I know too that you will not wish that my children grow without a responsible father providing their basic needs.
“Therefore, I want to beg you, for the sake of your late mother, who was the mother of Kogi State, and the value you and we attach to her, to please direct the Executive Chairman of Okene LGA to release the money to me so that I can start all over again and return my family back home with me.
“My Excellency sir, God will always be with you and you will never know shame. As a father that you are, God will use you to free me from this shackles of poverty that I have been since 2018 which is leading to depression for me.
“I am begging you for the sake of Allah and Prophet Muhammad S.A.W and the blessings in the month of Ramadan to help me out of this situation that I have been in for 5 years now,” he appealed.
