Ex-Governor Abubakar Of Bauchi Has To Account For N321bn – Recovery Committee Member Says  

BY ADEYENI AKANJI, BAUCHI – A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bauchi state, Alhaji Bibi Dogo has challenged the immediate past Governor of the State, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar to be ready to account for about N321. 3 billion he allegedly collected within the first 31 months of his administration or better still show the projects executed with the said money.

Bibi Dogo, who is a member of the recovery committee set by the Governor Bala Mohammed-led administration threw the challenge to the former Governor during an interactive session with journalists in Bauchi at the weekend, adding that the amount was collected under the watch of the former governor from the Paris Club funds, statutory allocation of State and Local Governments, Donations from the USAID for educational development, internally generated revenue, domestic and foreign loans.

While giving the breakdown of the funds collected by the former governor, Dogo alleged that from the records at the their disposal, Abubakar collected N33,425,994,087,69 for first, second and third trench of the Paris Club loans refunds from the Federal Government.

He added that the ex-Governor also 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 USAID $57,000,000 equivalent to N17,385,000,000,00 adding that between June 2015 and June 2016 the former governor received the sum of N22,778,721,996,00.

Dogo further said that the former Governor collected another N59,734,100,000,00 as domestic and foreign loans including N11,000,000,000,00 budget support from the Federal Government.

The PDP stalwart also said that this is the first of their revelations on the amount of money collected by the former governor without commissioning a single project during his tenure.

Dogo said; “By the grace of God, we will release the second and third phases of the amount received during the tenure of the former governor within his 48 months in office, because we didn’t touch many of the amounts collected”.

He described as shameful, the recent press conference by the media committee of the All Progressive Congress (APC) during which they made baseless allegations against the incumbent Governor Bala Mohammed, who because within his one year in office has executed billions of Naira projects, that were physically seen by the people of the State.

Dogo said that projects executed and commissioned by Governor Bala Mohammed include construction 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. 

Efforts made to get the reaction of the spokesman to former Governor, Ali Ali failed as he did not pick his  calls nor responded to the SMS sent to his number.