Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, members of
the National Assembly and leaders of the All Progressives Congress in
Bauchi State have dragged Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State to
the National Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odie-Oyegun.
The angry lawmakers it was gathered reported the governor to Oyegun
over the non-payment of workers’ salaries, non-utilisation of bailouts
from the Federal Government, among others.
According to Punch, the delegation, which was led by the Speaker of
the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, comprised of members
of the Senate and the House; the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu; and
leaders of the APC in the state.
As a result, the Bauchi APC leaders had a closed-door meeting with
Oyegun at the national secretariat in Abuja, after which the member
representing Bauchi-North at the Senate, Suleiman Nazif, briefed
journalists on the recent development.
He said, “Everything is not okay with the APC in Bauchi State.
Therefore, we needed the attention of the national secretariat to come
to the rescue because there is fire on the mountain.
“There are so many issues, but these are party issues and we
felt that there was the need for us to come and discuss with our leaders
and those issues are being handled. The national chairman has assured
us that he will take a drastic measure immediately and address the
problems.”
Nazif, however, denied that the meeting had anything to do with budget padding controversy in the House of Representatives.
“No! No!! No!!! It is not about padding; it is about Bauchi APC politics,” he stated.
The senator also denied the allegation by the governor that Dogara
and some leaders of the party in Bauchi were fuelling the crisis in the
state ahead of the Speaker’s political ambition in 2019.
He said, “It is not about 2019; it is about solving the APC problem
in Bauchi and ensuring that APC remains united in Bauchi. As you are
aware, APC’s strongest hold in the North is Bauchi State as far as
northern politics is concerned. So, there is the need for us to come to
the national secretariat, and we can assure you that the national
chairman is on top of the matter and we will go back to Bauchi and tell
our members exactly what transpired.”
When asked if it was true that members of the delegation were
against the governor, Nazif said, “Nobody is against the governor; the
governor is against himself.”
The senator representing Bauchi-South, Senator Ali Wakili, however
said the delegation did not meet with the APC leadership to talk about
the governor, but about Bauchi.
He said, “The governor is not Bauchi State. The people are the
determinants of history, not individuals. Individuals come and go. How
many governors were there before? He might be part of the problem, but
it is a collective problem we are trying to solve. He is our governor.”
When asked if the non-payment of salaries and non-utilisation
of bailout funds were part of the reasons why the delegation reported
the governor to APC, Wakili said, “That is part of the problem. You know
that it is an agrarian and civil service state and we must do
everything to see that workers are paid as at when due.
“We are not comparing ourselves with Osun or Edo or other
states that have backlogs of salaries; it is not our business. Our
people must be paid as at when due and the remaining balances of the
stipends must be paid and all the unending verifications must end.”
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