Bauchi: PDP, APC Trade Words Over Achievements Recorded In One Year
BY ADEYEMI AKANJI, BAUCHI – The Ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bauchi State and the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday trade words over claim of achievements recorded in the state in the last one year under the leadership of Governor Bala Mohammed.
The APC at a press conference, berated the PDP-led government in the state saying that the ruling party has no agenda for the good governance of state adding that it cannot point at any tangible achievement recorded within its one year in Office.
But the PDP in a swift response, said that as far as it is concerned, the APC is dead in Bauchi but merely struggling for survival and so is reading some people’s script with no facts to support the allegations raised against it.
The State Chairman of the PDP, Hamza Koshe Akuyam, who reacted to the allegations by the APC, said the APC is only involved in propaganda just to rubbish the well-deserved, hard earned achievements the PDP recorded within its first year in office.
According to Akuyam; “We are not miffed by the several allegations the APC are throwing about to raise false impressions about the Government in the minds of the people of the state.
“They talked about the source of how we pay salaries of the state and anybody who is conscious of the economic realities in the state will not question the source of the earnings of a state. At least we are paying salaries and the civil servants will attest to it.
“Concerning the projects in the state that they are alleging that due process was not followed in their execution, they should know that within one year, we executed projects that everyone can see, including them. These were projects they were struggling to complete during their wasted four years in office and they could not achieve anything.
“If they choose to remain docile, we hope they continue to remain docile and go dead within our first four years in office because if you want to make allegations, you should come out with concrete evidence.
“They alleged that we mismanage the COVID-19 palliatives given to the state, but everybody is a witness of how we briefed stakeholders of the state from the day we had the first index case to the over 200 index case of our achievements, so they have no facts,” the PDP Chairman said.
Akuyam advised the APC to do some introspection and soul searching instead of its current laughable resort to lies and guile to justify its disastrous failure in its four year administration in the state, adding that APC will come begging because Bauchi has always been a PDP state.
However, the APC through its Media/Publicity Committee chairman, Comrade Sabo Muhammad, described the one year of the PDP administration in the state as a waste, insisting that the situation Bauchi state has found itself is worrisome and most unfortunate in the history of the state.
Reacting to the position of Engr Joshua Sanga, Chairman of the State Budget Monitoring and Public Procurement Agency, who said the administration of Governor Bala Mohammed awarded over 70 different projects through due process and issued certificates of no objection, Mohammed described the projects said to be worth over N45 billion in 365 days as “white lies”.
He said that no due processes was followed in the projects such as list of companies that submitted tenders for projects, unit cost, location of project and type of service rendered before the award of contract.
He alleged that, “In 2019, the PDP while campaigning, mischievously claimed to have the temerity and dexterity of delivering better services to the state including opening window of bountiful employment opportunities to youths and women as well as improve security of lives and property if elected”
In the words of Mohammed; “The applied trick can rightly be said to have worked over the intelligence of the electorates. Ironically, it is just one year in office and we are all living witnesses to the policy thrusts on implementation by the PDP-led Government which is at variance with what it promised during the campaign. Instead of employment opportunities, the youths are pauperized and frustrated. The vocal ones among them are threatened with arrest and intimidation”.
On the management of the Coronavirus pandemic in the state, Mohammed said that the pandemic situation was given a political colouration laced with deceit of prompt action while the situation worsened, pointing out that the people of the state were given draconian laws under the guise of fighting COVID-19, which affected the legitimate sources of livelihood adding that palliatives were denied the people.
