Al-Makura Opens Ex-governor Adamu’s Can of Worms

By Emmanuel Ukumba in Lafia

As the face-off  between Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa

State and the former governor of the state, Senator Abdulahi Adamu gets messier, Al-Makura has opened Adamu’s can of worms when the latter governed the state between 1999 to 2007.

This is coming on the heels of a committee set up by the governor to review the concessioning agreements of all Nasarawa State government-owned hotels and other related facilities.

The committee was also mandated to review and investigate the circumstances that led to the abandonment of Farin Ruwa Independent Hydropower Plant Project, as well as the Zimbabwean Farmers Project.

Consequently, Governor Al-Makura who spoke through his Director General of Strategic Communication and Press Affairs, Yakubu Lamai, in a press statement said the charges against Adamu who is currently representing Nasarawa West senatorial district in the National Assembly,  ae serious and include the abandonment of the multi-billion naira Farin Ruwa Project.

“Other aspects of the investigation are contained in a petition by a civil society organisation, NAS TRANSPARENCY, in which Senator Adamu is further alleged to have used government resources to upgrade the Keffi Club by constructing a swimming pool, tennis court, and meeting rooms and bar and converting the facilities to his personal use.

The governor also alleged that Adamu “built three personal ‘retirement homes’ at state expense and sold one for personal profit,” and also “behaved unscrupulously in transactions regarding the Abuja and Lagos Liaison Offices of the Nasarawa State government.”

The governor added that the petition by the civil society group, NAS TRANSPARENCY, was handed to him more than a year ago but there has been no response from the senator till date. “The attention of Governor Al-Makura has been drawn to a press statement credited to senator Adamu who avers that everything he did was done openly and transparently. As the 2019 elections draw near, this is not the time for personal attacks against an incumbent governor whose duty it is to seek and obtain answers to disturbing allegations of financial impropriety. It is Governor Al-Makura’s view that the appropriate forum for such rebuttals should be the committee set up by the Nasarawa State government,” the statement said.

Meanwhile two youths from Nasarawa State, Sabo Nuhu and Musa Chiro, last weekend went spiritual by trekking 60 kilometres from Akwanga to Lafia seeking divine intervention for the incumbent Nasarawa State Deputy Governor, Silas Agara, to emerge victorious in the forth coming

All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary elections.

The duo, who started their trekking expedition on Saturday in Akwanga, the headquarters of Akwanga Local Government Area, arrived at the campaign office of the deputy governor in Lafia on the same

day  where they were received by the Director General of the Agara Campaign

Organisation, Musa Omaki Yusuf.

Speaking to journalists shortly after their arrival, one of the youths, Musa Chiro, said they got the inspiration to embark on the solidarity trek from the concepts of the Holy Bible where Jesus came

into the world and devoted himself to die for the sins he knew nothing about.

 “On that note, we sacrificed ourselves and took that cross

on behalf of the entire youths of Nasarawa State by trekking to ask

God to wipe our tears and save the state from untimely death by way of

 giving Agara the APC governorship ticket of the state. This is

because Agara has been in the corridors of government since the

inception of the present political dispensation; therefore he knows

the nitty-gritty of governance,” he said.