Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed has described immediate past Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, as a nomadic politician whose defection back to the All Progressives Congress (APC), should not bother right thinking members of the society.
The Governor is a statement through his media aide, Muktar Gidado, said Dogara’s “spurious allegations against the governor” cannot stand the test of time.
According to the statement, Governor Bala Mohammed has judiciously adhered to the extant financial rules, in the management of allocations to the Local Governments, based on federal allocation and cash flow.
“Since June 2019 we have faithfully released the LG allocations as at when due. To the best of our knowledge no one has complained of any violation of the provisions of either the Revenue and Mobilization Act or the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU)”, the statement reads.
The statement also says that, contrary to what obtained during the last Administration which Dogara endured for four years, the present administration has been paying wages and salaries as at when due.
“It should be placed on record that the LGs are indebted to the State Government to the tune of N9b. This arose from projects purportedly executed by the previous administration, through the Joint Account Committee. But we have stopped the charade and we are now rebuilding the finances of the Local Governments.”
On allegations of salary deductions, the statement says “though we inherited two months arrears of salaries, our track record of prompt payment of salaries both at the state and local government levels, has earned us the confidence and respect of workers in the state.
“This stabilization of salaries has been achieved by rebuilding a robust cash flow system using tax refunds from the federal government and blocking leakages such as contract inflation and other bogus expenditure through which the state was being hemorrhaged during the immediate past Administration.”
On allegations of LG elections the Governor said, “The truth is that two previous attempts by the Bauchi State Government to conduct the LG elections were shelved because of the COVID-19 crisis that has affected schedules globally.
“We had to postpone the elections in line with the cautious approach adopted by the Federal Government, to prevent spread of the virus.”
He further rebuffed the N4.6 billion corruption allegations, saying, “We cannot blame Hon. Dogara for his ignorance. It will take a “lost and found” politician not to know what is happening because he disappeared after the elections.”
