Dogara, minister accuse Gov. Abubakar of squandering N8.6bn bailout fund

The Governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abubakar, may have more than enough to contend with, as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, on Friday, led a high-powered delegation to the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Abuja, to report him.

The delegation, which included the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, Senator Suleiman Nazif, Senator Ali Wakil and other members of the National Assembly from Bauchi State, accused the governor of squandering about N8.6billion bail-out fund extended to the state by the federal government.

The delegation met with leaders of the party led by its National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun and National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni at about 5pm.

Spokesman of the delegation, Senator Suleiman Nazif, while speaking with reporters after the meeting that lasted for about an hour, said they were at the National Secretariat to draw the attention of the party to issues affecting the APC in Bauchi.

He also denied reports that they were fighting the governor because of the 2019 governorship election in the state.

“Nobody is against the governor. The governor is against himself. As you are aware, we have come as united members of the National Assembly with some major stakeholders to the APC to address some major issues.

“Everybody knows that APC in Bauchi is not okay and so, we needed the attention of the APC at the national level to come to the rescue of APC in Bauchi.

“There are so many issues which are party issues and we felt that there was the need to come and discuss with our leaders. The issues are being handled and the national chairman has assured us that he will take drastic measures immediately to address the pending problems in Bauchi.

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“The meeting is not about budget padding. The issue is about Bauchi APC and its politics. The problem also is not about 2019, but about solving the problem in Bauchi APC to ensure that the party remains united in the state.

“We are aware that APC’s strongest hold in the north is Bauchi and I can assure you that the national chairman is on top of the situation. We will also go back to Bauchi and address our key supporters and tell them exactly what transpired”.

Senator Ali Wakil, who also spoke to reporters, said the delegation was at the party secretariat to report the governor to the party for misappropriating the bail-out fund.

Wakil said: “We did not come to speak about the governor; we came to speak about Bauchi state. But we know that when Bauchi state is mentioned, the governor will be involved. The governor is not Bauchi state; the people are the determinants of history, not individuals. Individuals come and go. How many governors were there before? He might be part of the problem but it is collective problem we are trying to solve. He is our governor. Constitutionally, if you look at section 176, 177 and others, he has the constitutional role of governing the state.

“So, there are issues revolving around non payment of salaries, and non utilization of bail-out funds. That is part of the problem. You know that it is an agrarian and civil service state and we must do everything to see that workers are paid as, at and when due.

“We are not comparing ourselves with Osun or Ondo or other states that have backlogs of salaries. It is not our business. Our people must be paid as at and when due and the remaining balances of the stipends must be paid and all the unending verifications must end”, he said.

It would be recalled that Gov. Abubakar had denied allegations that he mismanaged the bail-out fund, adding that workers in the state were only owed oned month salary.

He also attributed the one month salary arrears to a court order asking it to pay the severance allowances of some of the immediate-past public office holders in the state.

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews

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