ABUJA – Embattled 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, accusing his state governor, Mohammed Abubakar of squandering about N8.6billion bail-out fund extended to the state by the federal government.
The party stalwarts who were led to the secretariat of the by Mr Dogara included the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, Senator Suleiman Nazif, Senator Ali Wakil and other members of the national Assembly from Bauchi state. The meeting which started at about 5.00pm and lasted for about one hour was attended by the National Chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegu, and the National Secretary, Mai Mala Buni. Speaking with newsmen after the meeting, their spokesman, Senator Suleiman Nazif said they were at the National Secretariat to draw the attention of the party to issues affecting the APC in Bauchi, denying 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. “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”.
Also speaking, Senator Ali Wakil said they were at the 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. Gov. Abubakar had earlier dismissed allegations that he squandered the bail-out fund, saying Bauchi workers were only owed a month salary which was occasioned by a court judgment that ordered the state government to offset the severance allowances of some of the immediate-past public office holders in the state.
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