Yuguda dismisses asset recovery c’ttee’s report, threatens court action
Former Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi state has dismissed the report of the state funds and assets recovery committee, saying that it’s a calculated attempt to smear his reputation and has threatened legal action against the state government.
A former Commissioner for Religious Affairs under the Yuguda administration, Alhaji Salisu Barau, argued that the amount the committee alleged was carted away by previous administrations in the state does not reflect the reality on ground.
The former commissioner who described the over N1 trillion claim by the committee as ridiculous, said that “if you look at the revenue portfolio of the state during the tenure of my boss, for whom I am speaking now, you will agree with me that the total internally generated revenue that came into the coffers of the government from May 2007 – May 2015 was in the range of N650-N700 billion.
“Hitherto before now, we saw the report on the social media and had wanted to keep mute thinking that it was just the committee that made their own assertion and even wrongly went to the media.”
Alhaji Salisu, who is also an APC chieftain in the state, asserted that “following the submission of the report and the subsequent pronouncement made by Governor Mohammed Bala, it has become clear to everybody that it is one of the political gimmicks from the present government purposely created to distract the attention of the citizens of Bauchi state so that its maladministration will continue.”
Also, he explained that even though he is not speaking for the immediate past administration in the state, he expressed doubts if that administration collected more than N400 billion as revenue throughout its tenure.
“Now, be it as it may, even if he had collected N400 billion, if you add that N400 billion to the N700 billion collected by Yuguda, it’s about N1.1 trillion.
“Now, the question a rational person will ask is how did the two governors collect this amount of money and carted N1trillion? Does it mean that the two previous administrations before the current one did nothing in the state? They did not pay salaries, did not service the government and executed no projects in the state?” he asked.
Salisu said before the coming of the Yuguda administration, many secondary school graduates were roaming the streets with no hope of furthering their education, until the establishment of the state university which now has become not only the pride of Bauchi state, but the nation as a whole.
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“Yuguda awarded both domestic and foreign scholarships annually, he gave scholarships to 20-30 female and male students to go and study medicine abroad, aeronautic engineers and other relevant courses that have direct bearing on the people of Bauchi state,” the ex-commissioner submitted.
According to him, Yuguda came in when more than 30 secondary schools were in a dilapidated condition, renovated 25, built hospitals and renovated primary health centres across the state in addition to a constructing a specialist hospital for the state.
“Yuguda struggled to ensure that the hitherto Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University of Technology was converted to a conventional university amongst many other achievements and impacted positively on human capital development.
“Yuguda will come clean at the end of the day. This government just created the committee in order to divert the attention of the people of Bauchi state from the myriad of allegations now coming out against it.
“So, we thought there are some group of people who do not wish Bala and Yuguda well. But, now that the report has been received by the governor himself and he has ordered for their prosecution, l am sorry to say that our principal has no option than to go to competent court of law to seek redress,” he added.
