| Abdullahi Umar Ganduje |
Ahead of Saturday’s supplementary election in Kano State, the state government has started projects including road rehabilitation, construction of boreholes and drainages as well as refuse collection in Gama ward of the Nasarawa Local Government Area of the state.
The election in Gama ward was cancelled following a crisis at the Nasarawa Local Government Area collation centre.
A resident of the ward, Mallam Abdullahi Gama ,who operates a commercial tricycle, said, “I was going home on Friday when I saw some of these projects especially the road.
“The number of projects we have seen in this area within the last three days is more than what we have seen in three years. Even though it is Ganduje’s government that is doing this road, some Kwankwasiyya people have named the road ‘Abba Yusuf road.”
Heraldnigeria.com learnt that the projects being embarked upon were being funded from the state and local governments joint account where N223.5m was withdrawn from last week.
In his reaction, the PDP governorship candidate in Kano, Kabir Yusuf, described the government’s action as laughable.
According to a statement by Yusuf’s spokesman, Sanusi Tofa, the ongoing road construction work at Gama ward was an act of deception.
But the state Commissioner for Local Governments, Alhaji Murtala Sulegaro, said there was nothing controversial in the N233.5m in question.
He said the opposition was engaging in pure mischief because the fact that there was a pending election did not mean governance must stop.
The commissioner said the releases were made to ensure the completion of ongoing projects to improve the lives of residents and citizens of Kano.
Sulegaro said, “The money is meant for the 44 Local Government Areas, we always release money for the 44 LGAs when we receive federal allocations and I can tell you that these allegations are baseless.
“It is not in all the 13 LGAs that we disbursed the total of N223, 500,000 that we have supplementary election.”
Also speaking on the issue, the state Commissioner for Information, Mallam Mohammed Garba, said the decision of the state government to complete ongoing projects was in line with its current mandate of improving the lives of the people of the state.
Garba, who is also the Publicity Secretary of the 2019 APC campaign in the state, said, “There is nothing the government does at this time that those in opposition will not read meaning into.
“These projects are not only in Gama, there are ongoing projects in other parts of the state where there is no supplementary election.”
On his part, a former Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali-Ndume, on Sunday defended the decision of INEC to declare the March 9 governorship poll “inconclusive” in Kano and five other states.
The other states are Sokoto, Benue, Bauchi, Plateau and Adamawa.
He said the move was to ensure fairness to the two leading political parties and their candidates in line with the requirements of the Electoral Act, 2010.