Salisu Garba Koko, a federal lawmaker representing Maiyama/Koko/Besse Federal Constituency of Kebbi State has in search of his “stolen mandate” decamped from two political parties — All Progressives Congress (APC) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) — until he found a soft landing at Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He was among the committee of lawmakers indicted of taking bribes from agencies and institutions being probed for job racketeering, according to a PREMIUM TIMES investigation.
The investigation revealed that the lawmakers allegedly took bribes amounting to N267 million through a proxy from the federal institutions. But being the head of the committee, Gagdi, a lawmaker representing the Pankshin/Kanam/Kanke federal constituency in Plateau State refuted the allegations.
On Tuesday, August 15, some committee members met with heads of the nation’s federally-owned universities, comprising 51 vice-chancellors, and secretly negotiated N2 million bribe from each of them to let them off the hook. Afterwards, the vice-chancellors were given an account number: 5400495458, domiciled in Providus Bank, to pay [the bribe] into.
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The lawmakers even instructed the vice-chancellors to “clearly indicate the name of the institution in the payment invoice, PREMIUM TIMES reported.
In separate meetings, negotiated N3 million bribe with rectors of the 35 federally-owned polytechnics and provosts of the 27 federally-owned colleges of education.
He represented the constituency under the platform of APC in the 8th assembly. Having served one tenure in the legislature, Koko attempted to run for a second term but pundits within the party allegedly truncated his dream by changing the lists of delegates prior to the 2018 primaries of the party.
Having lost the party’s ticket, Koko tried all avenues to reclaim his mandate but to no avail. This frustrated him to defect to the SDP and contest the 2019 general elections, but he was not lucky.
In January 2022, Koko and his supporters returned to the APC splinter group under the leadership of former governor Senator Adamu Aliero to fight against what they referred to as injustices meted out on them by ex-governor Atiku Bangudu, now a serving minister.
Koko claimed he and his supporters moved to Senator Aliero in their bid to salvage the state from “nepotism and injustice.”
In the build-up to the 2023 elections, Koko again defected to PDP where he returned to the assembly to represent his constituents.
BRIEF OF BIOGRAPHY
Koko was born in 1963. He attended Federal College Giginya and obtained a Grade II Certificate in 1984. He later studied at Niger State Polytechnic and obtained a Diploma in the year 2013.
In 2015, Koko was elected into the Federal House of Representatives, to represent his constituents. During his first tenure as a federal lawmaker, Koko’s legislative interest covered health, agriculture, education, environment and housing.
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In November 2018, he defected from the APC to SDP after he claimed that the genuine list of APC delegates was changed during their primaries.
According to him, even the committee set up by the party to attend to issues of irregularities during the primaries didn’t help matters.
He said his decision to dump APC was as a result of the party’s inability to restore his stolen mandate during the primaries.
