The Bauchi State Chapter of the All Progressive Congress (APC) has described the comment made by Governor Bala Mohammed blaming the fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Tinubu for the economic situation in the country, as very unreasonable.
The opposition party in the state said there is no nation that does not experience challenges.
APC, in a press statement signed by the its publicity committee chairman, Saadu Umar and made available to journalists on Saturday, recalled that Governor Mohammed had vehemently supported the fuel subsidy removal when he served as a minister in the cabinet of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Recall that the Bauchi State governor had during the week criticized the federal government for its failure to address the pervasive hunger, anger and severe poverty affecting Nigerians which resulted to the nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests.
However, the party said that since the APC government under the leadership of President Tinubu came on board, the economy of the nation including Bauchi State has been positively transformed through the execution of laudable projects in the state and county at large.
APC said, “Agreed that there are challenges, yet President Tinubu’s policies are working. For instance, the policies are the reason governor Mohammed is now receiving billions and billions in monthly allocations, up to thrice as much as he used to receive. From January to June, Governor Bala Mohammed has received over N87.4 billion from FAAC.
“President Tinubu is the reason why Governor Mohammed and his colleagues received over N135.4 billion last December in order to help the poor and the vulnerable in Bauchi.
“Similarly, President Tinubu just gave over N438 billion to Governor Mohammed and his brothers to fight hunger in Bauchi and other states.
“Apart from the billions being sent to Bauchi, President Tinubu has signed laws, specifically laws to help Bauchi workers and beyond. The National Minimum Wage Act is freshly signed by the President that mandated a N70, 000 minimum wage. Sadly, Governor Mohammed has refused to pay this minimum wage to Bauchi workers despite collecting over N100 billion from Abuja.
“Rather, Governor Mohammed has unconsciously paid over N11.6 billion to a questionable financial consultant by June this year. Another over N9 billion was paid to the same consultant last year, instead of paying just N70,000 to workers.”
The APC also alleged that the Bauchi State governor paid over N33.5 billion to his Government House and Governor’s Office as overhead cost between January and June.
“In lieu of taking care of citizens, including pensioners who are being owed gratuities, Governor Mohammed engages in boondoggles and white elephant projects like flyovers.
“Bauchi has never seen such an obscene distortion of public spendings,” the statement said.
Saadu attributed the Governor’s ‘angry’ to the judgement of the Supreme Court granting financial autonomy to local governments across the federation, pointing out that “the judgement has denied the governor free money, the governor and his puppets have been feeding fat on.”
He noted that the judgement was welcomed by all and sundry, particularly the grassroots.
The APC acting Chairman noted that the apex court’s ruling has reduced deep and growing disaffection and cynicism with the local government administration and politicians in government, adding, “To suggest otherwise is absurd.The only disaffected people are governor Mohammed and his breed for selfish reasons.”
He further called on President Tinubu and the APC-led National Assembly to “remove governors from conducting local government councils elections. This is the only way to have free and fair local government council elections.”
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