Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State, yesterday,
gave insight on how his predecessor, Mallam Isa Yuguda, allegedly
withdrew N1 billion from the state government’s account in one day,
accusing him of squandering N2 billion ecological fund.
Abubakar, who spoke during an interface with journalists in Abuja,
claimed the ecological fund was allegedly advanced to governors of
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, under the administration of former
President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.
While he said a probe
panel he instituted to review the eight-year tenure of his predecessor
would soon submit its report, the governor claimed Yuguda received so
much from the federation account during the oil boom period with nothing
to show for it. He said:
“For that
reason, it is incumbent to ask questions. The EFCC have been knocking at
my door, asking questions about the past and so I cannot keep quiet.
“When
I took over on May 29, 2015, the state was owing civil servants four
months salaries; a state where civil servants and pensioners were owed
N14.5 billion gratuity; a state where other loans comprising commercial
and contractual liabilities amounted to over N100 billion.”
‘I did’t divert N8.6bn bail-out fund’
He
dismissed allegations that he misappropriated the N8.6 billion bail out
fund extended to the state by the Federal Government to assist her in
offsetting outstanding salaries of civil servants. He said: “I took over
when Ramadan was setting in and the state is about 90 percent Muslim,
and salaries had not been paid for four months.
“Bauchi
State is dependent on salary because it is essentially a civil service
state. I decided to pay a month salary, but the treasury was empty. I
obtained a loan of N4 billion from which I utilised N2.6 billion to pay
the May salary.
“States
were asked to submit the amount of debt in salaries owed to civil
servants. Bauchi State submitted N8.6 billion because that was what we
owed civil servants at that time. The N8.6 billion was again injected
into the economy of the state in terms of payment of salaries and
salary-related items.
“We have not diverted any amount of money. We were able to inject this into the economy.”
