Bauchi Governor-elect Vows to Reverse Last Minute Govt Decisions

Shola Oyeyipo in Abuja

The Bauchi State governor-elect, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, has warned beneficiaries of some of the last minute policies and legislations of outgoing Governor Mohammed Abubakar that his administration would spare no effort to reverse ill-advised decision of the government.

Making this known during a chat with journalists in Abuja Thursday, the spokesperson to the Bauchi State governor-elect and Head of the Bauchi State Transition Media Team, Mr. Ladan Saliu, said the activities of the outgoing Bauchi State governor was of serious concern to the incoming administration of Senator Mohammed.

Some of such decisions according to Saliu include the recent employment of 1200 unqualified individuals into the civil service, laws being enacted to help corrupt officials of the government escape the law, appointment of hundreds of political cronies of the outgoing governor as district, village and hamlet heads and law being proposed to pay a monthly pension of N250, 000 to lawmakers for life.

He said: “We want to categorically state that these actions are totally rejected by the incoming government. We also admonish our respected royal fathers, and the prospective beneficiaries of this charade that accepting these appointments would clearly undermine the goodwill of the incoming administration.

“Governor Mohammed Abubakar has employed over 1200 unqualified individuals into the civil service and deployed them across state-owned tertiary institutions and MDAs. Information available to us indicates that most of those employed were transferred from local government councils in order to circumvent laid down procedures of employment in the public service.

“What makes this clearly scandalous is that this exercise had created parallel payrolls in which salaries must have been clearly duplicated, and this perhaps explains why the payment of April salary was not only delayed and staggered but manipulated to accommodate this anomaly.

“As I speak to you, laws are being enacted by the State House of Assembly designed to clearly assist officers of the outgoing government to escape the long arm of the law for serious acts of corruption while in office.

“The State House of Assembly yesterday passed a bill to repeal the Bauchi State Public Property and Funds Recovery Tribunal Law 2017. Ordinarily, this would be considered normal in the conduct of legislative businesses, but in this instance this law will go down in history as the law which was passed with an inglorious speed as it passed through 1st, 2nd and 3rd readings within an hour, passed into law, and hurriedly assented to on the same day. I must explain that this law was enacted by the same governor only in 2017 to hunt down perceived political enemies, and having outlived its usefulness is now conveniently abrogated.

“Another Bill to create additional district, village areas and hamlets was summarily hurried through the House of Assembly in a similar fashion. These laws seek to appoint hundreds of political cronies of the outgoing governor as district, village and hamlet heads throughout the state.”

Saliu said though as a true democrat, Senator Mohammed would have preferred to accept laws enacted in good faith, but that he would spare no effort to make sure that these ill-advised laws are reversed.

“This style of policy summersault undermines the principles and practices of democracy and is a travesty of accepted legislative norms,” he stated.