PAUL ORUDE, BAUCHI
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Alhaji Bibi Dogo says the immediate past governor of Bauchi State, Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, must account for over N321 billion naira he allegedly collected within the first 31 months of his administration.
Dogo challenged Abubakar to show the projects he executed with the funds.
He alleged that the amount was collected under the watch of the former governor from Paris club funds, statutory allocation of State and Local Governments, Donations from the United State of America for educational development, internally generated revenue, domestic and foreign loans.
Giving the breakdown of the amount collected by the former governor, Dogo who served in the assets and recovery committee set up by Governor Bala Mohammed alleged that from the genuine records at the their disposal the former Governor Collected N33,425,994,087,69 for first second and third trench of the Paris club loans refunds from the Federal Government.
He alleged that ex-Governor Abubakar collected N205,328,523,558,00 for state and local governments from the federation account within the first 31 months of his administration, and received donations from the USA $57,000,000 equivalent to N17,385,000,000,00.
He said between June 2015 June 2016 the former governor received N22,778,721,996,00.
Dogo also alleged that the former Governor collected N59,734,100,000,00 both domestic and foreign loans including 11,000,000,000,00 budget support collected from the Federal Government.
The PDP stalwart said this is the first of their revelations on the amount of money collected by the former governor without commissioning a single project within his first tenure.
“By the grace of God we will release the second and third phase of the amount received during the tenure of former governor within his 48 months in office, because we didnt touch many of the amounts collected, ” he said.
He carpeted the All Progressive Congress APC over what he called baseless allegations against the incumben “because within his one year in office has executed billions of Naira contract , that were physically seen by the people of the State”
Dogo said the projects included constructions of roads bridges in the three senatorial districts, provision of Bauchi Water Supply, construction of over 1000 classrooms by SUBEB and SDGS and establishment of Corona Virus testing center among others.
Effort to get the reaction of the spokesman to the Governor Ali Mohammed Ali failed.
One of the former governor’s closest who pleaded anonymity, said Abibakar did not short changed the people but did his best to develop the state and pledged to makes his projects available for all to see.