Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has said that governors received N1 billion from the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to help cushion the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bello also said that the governors signed a memorandum of understanding with the World Bank which gave them N1.1 billion each.

The governor who made this known in an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday said that he was the only governor who didn’t sign the MoU with World Bank

On why he received the COVID-19 fund despite claiming that Kogi State didn’t have the virus, he said, “even though we did not have COVID-19 in Kogi State, we are equally affected; because our economy was equally affected and Federal Government released that fund to assist every state and we cannot reject it.”

The governor labelled the World Bank MoU as a one-sided agreement.

“Go and check records. Kogi State is the only State that refused to sign that document for N1.1bilion because I don’t believe in COVID. N500million has been disbursed, Kogi State did not receive and I refused to receive and I rejected it,” he said

He said that the allegation that his administration hid COVID-19 palliatives is a fabrication to discredit him.