From Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo

As Taraba State celebrates its twentieth anniversary, the State Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Alhaji Ibrahim El-Suldi has said that the Governor Darius Ishaku led administration has taken the state backwards by over twenty years.

El-Sudi who made the remarks during an interaction with journalists in Jalingo on Friday said that while the military administrations and the first two civilian administrations did their best to bring about development, the present administration has not only failed to bring about development but has allowed the legacies of the previous administrations to waste away.

“Today, we are supposed to be celebrating thirty years of creation as a state but we can not celebrate. The first civilian administrations and the military tried their best in opening up the state because Jalingo was a glorified local government due to lack of roads. They established the Jolly Nyame stadium, the Airport, the University, Hospitals and other areas across the state.

“The present administration has not brought any meaningful development at all. The claim of 600 kilometers road is a serial lie. It is absolutely unfounded. They constructed a few kilometers of road at Magami, roadblock to Kona and have started a few others that are ongoing and some have been abandoned.

“Our worst regret is that, rather than bring development, they have destroyed the legacies of the past administration such as stadium. Hospitals are mere consulting rooms. Jalingo motel has become a habitat for reptiles and rodents. The ministries are overgrown with grasses. The local government areas are dead because nothing happens there. The state governor corners all the funds. You don’t need to go to Borno or Rivers to know that the governor’s there are working. The administration has performed abysmally and should wake up from their slumber and redeem their image rather than feeding lies to the people.

 

“The present administration has taken Taraba state 20 years backwards by polarising the people along tribal and religious lines. Development wise, it’s even worse. Rather than up development, it has destroyed the legacies of the past administrations. There are areas even in Jalingo the state capital that are simply not motorable and the government cares less. The government’s expertise is in conducting marriages home and abroad.

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“The revenue from federation account and other donor agencies is simply unaccounted for. The administration has performed woefully. The level of development is simply not commensurate with the resources. Most of the projects the administration is claiming were done by the last administration. If they had said the PDP government did them, we would understand. But to claim that this administration has done these roads is adminstrative fraud”.

Meanwhile, Alhaji Ibrahim Irimiya Hamanjulde, the Taraba State Commissioner of Works on Thursday disclosed that the state government is undertaking the construction of over Six Hundred kilometers of roads across the state to ease movement of persons and property.

 

He said that the state government has decided to embark on so many road projects because of how very key they are towards the economic development of the state.

“As the state marks it’s Thirtieth year of creation tomorrow, it is important for us to celebrate the achievements we have recorded in the area of road construction especially. The development in this sector is very key and instrumental because the state is blessed with enormous resources in areas that are mostly hard to reach due to bad roads.

“Consequently, the governor made it a top priority to provide access roads to ease movement of farm produce and provide access to other resources such as timber in Kurmi and others. This is just in the area of road construction. There are remarkable development in so many other areas such as education, health, agriculture and others” he said.

 

El-Sudi urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to hasten their job in the state and ensure that the culprits are brought to book as soon as possible.