The Bauchi State Funds and Asset Recovery Committee has indicted the immediate-past governor of the state, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar for alleged mismanagement of state funds and violations of his oath of office during his tenure as governor of the state.
The Public Relations Officer of the Committee, Umar Barau Ningi, who disclosed this during a press conference on the findings of the committee on Thursday said they have discovered fraudulent and fictitious contract, mismanagement, selfish interest and violations of his oath office.
He alleged that the former governor sold to himself seven posh vehicles belonging to the state government in violation of provisions of Bauchi State Budget Monitoring, Price Intelligence and Public procurement Law (BMPIPP 2008), for the disposal of government assets and/or properties.
He added that Abubakar had allocated 30 exotic vehicles to his political appointees and public office holders that have left office were found to have not been returned.
“The Committee has already recovered 15 of such vehicles and, is on the trail of the remaining 15 with a view to recovering and returning them to government pool. The Committee has taken steps to recover the vehicles that the former governor arbitrarily sold to himself,” he said.
Ningi said that in violation of his Oath of Office, the former governor initiated a transaction and sold to himself a house with Certificate of Occupancy No. BA/40245 located adjacent to Wikki Hotel, belonging to Bauchi state government, at a highly subsidised rate.
“This, also, is in gross violation of the (BMPIPP 2008) procurement law, for the disposal of government assets and/or properties. Section 55, Subsection 4 & 5 states inter alia that say ‘all procuring entities shall distribute responsibilities for the disposal of public property between procurement units and Tenders Board;’” he added.
“A report of the findings shall be forwarded to the Executive Council for appropriate directive.
“All these provisions were found to have been violated. Above all, the disposing entity, Bauchi Geographic Information Service (BAGIS) is not backed by any law, as the Bill that established the Agency in 2017 is yet to be signed into law.
“It follows therefore that, whatever business the Agency transacted, and with whomsoever – individuals or organisations, is illegal, null and void, and of no effect whatsoever,” he noted.
He added that the Committee considers as morally reprehensible for a sitting governor to apply for the purchase of a government property and approved same for himself placing his individual interest above public interest.
Ningi said that the Committee was able to traced about fifteen properties in Kaduna state with their certificates of occupancy and ground rents paid up to 2017,
“On education he said, between October 2016 and May 2018 alone, N1.4 billion was out rightly stolen, while unremitted taxes amounting to over N705 million was carted away by some greedy officers at the state treasury.
“The Committee uncovered multi-million Naira fraudulent and questionable contracts, some of them fully paid for according to documents showing capital releases, but were either abandoned or completely not executed.”
He noted that some of the contracts include Paris Club recovery awarded to a consultant Mauritz Walton, saying what makes this contract suspicious was the claim by the consulted to have received N5 billion being part payment from Bauchi state, waiting for a balance of N3 billion.
“According to payment voucher from the state Treasury and a Bank Statement of accounts of Bauchi state government showed a figure much less than he claimed to have received. And the consultant have no idea on how much he was been paid. It was on record that Nigeria Governor’s Forum had hired a consultant on behalf of all the states of the federation on same issue.”
Speaking on the controversial 500 unit of tractors, he said only 40 units of tractors valued at N554,829,280 were supplied by the contractor and the contract was awarded at N4.7 billion and paid the contractor N2.065, 958, 359 billion leaving a balance of N1.5 billion.
When contacted, the media aide to the former governor, Abubakar Sadeeq, asked for time to contact his principal before he will explain their position.
