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Why I’m singing against Yuguda my predecessor –Gov Abubakar

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Bauchi State governor, Mohammed Abubakar, Wednesday, said he could no longer keep quiet to inquiries being made by the EFCC concerning his predecessor, Isa Yuguda.

He revealed that Yuguda, withdrew N1 billion in one day from the Ecological Fund for the state.

The fund was given to states governed by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, during the tenure of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The governor who stated this when he spoke with journalists in Abuja, accused Yuguda of squandering the N2 billion ecological fund.

He also disclosed that a probe panel he instituted to review the eight-year tenure of his predecessor would soon submit its report, adding that his predecessor received so much money from the federation account but had nothing to show for it.

He said: “For that reason, it is incumbent to ask questions. The EFCC have been knocking at my door, asking questions about the past and so I cannot keep quiet.

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“When I took over on May 29, 2015, the state was owing civil servants four months salaries; a state where civil servants and pensioners were owed N14.5 billion gratuity; a state where other loans comprising commercial and contractual liabilities amounted to over N100 billion.”

On allegations that his administration misappropriated the N8.6 billion bail out fund it received from the Federal Government, Abubakar said no money was misappropriated but was used to settle salary arrears of workers.

He said: “I took over when Ramadan was setting in and the state is about 90 percent Muslim, and salaries had not been paid for four months.

“Bauchi State is dependent on salary because it is essentially a civil service state. I decided to pay a month salary, but the treasury was empty. I obtained a loan of N4 billion from which I utilised N2.6 billion to pay the May salary.

“States were asked to submit the amount of debt in salaries owed to civil servants. Bauchi State submitted N8.6 billion because that was what we owed civil servants at that time. The N8.6 billion was again injected into the economy of the state in terms of payment of salaries and salary-related items.

“We have not diverted any amount of money. We were able to inject this into the economy.”

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews

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