The high powered committee set by Bauchi State Governor BalaMohammed has indicted the immediate past governor of the State, Barrister
Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar for looting the state’s assets and properties.Briefing newsmen at a press conference on the activities ofthe committee, chairman of the committeeSenator Isa Hamma Misau said the Committee has discovered that the former Governor Abubakar has sold to himself, seven(7) luxury and utility vehiclesbelonging to Bauchi State Government in violation of provisions of Bauchi State Budget Monitoring , PriceIntelligence and Public Procurement Law. The vehicles , according to the chairman includes:
Land Cruiser Armoured Jeep, auctioned at the cost ofN7,800,000.00, Land Cruiser V8, sold atthe cost N2,800,000.00,
Two Toyota Hilux Vehicles , sold at the cost of N1,050,000.00 each and
Range Rover (Jeep), with Chassis sold at the cost of andthree
three Range Rover (Jeep) vehicles that were auctioned eachat the cost of N2,114,700.00., N2,947,875.00and N2,114,700.00 respectively.
Senator Misau further said that, thirty (30) exotic vehiclesallocated to his political appointees and public office holders that have leftoffice were not returned, pointing out that, “the Committee has alreadyrecovered fifteen (15) of such vehicles and, is on the trail of the remainingfifteen (15) with a view to recovering and returning them to government pool.In the same vein, the Committee has taken steps to recover the vehicles that theformer governor arbitrarily sold to himself”.
Shading more light on the committee’s work, he said that It hasalso discovered that former GovernorAbubakar had initiated a transaction and sold to himself a house withCertificate of Occupancy No. BA/40245 located adjacent to Wikki Hotel,belonging to Bauchi State Government, at a highly subsidized rate. This ,according to him, is also in gross violation of the Bauchi State Budget Monitoring , PriceIntelligence and Public Procurement Law.
The committee chairman also said that between October 2016and May 2018 alone, nearly N1.4 billion was out rightly stolen.
“Furthermore, there were deductions in the name of civilservants in Bauchi State, for National Housing Fund supposed to be paid to the FederalMortgage Bank but diverted to private pockets, amounting to nearly N350Million. Under these direct withdrawals and theft, we have a total of aboutN2.5 Billion. The culprits have been identified and efforts have reachedadvanced stage to retrieve the amount, and appropriately prosecuted”.
On the award of contracts Hammah Misau said the Committeehad also uncovered multi-billion naira fraudulent and questionable contracts,some of them fully paid for, but were either abandoned or completely not executed.
The Committee chairman said they identified a highlysuspicious contract on Paris Club recovery, awarded to a consultant, MauritzWalton.
“What makes this contract even more suspicious was the claimby the consultant to have received N5 billion being part payment from BauchiState Government, waiting for a balance of N3 billion.
“However, according to payment voucher from the StateTreasury and a Bank Statement of Account of Bauchi State showed a figure muchless than what he claimed to have received. Apparently, the Consultant has noidea on how much he has actually been paid. This underscores the shoddy natureof the contract. It is shocking that from our preliminary findings, there wasno such consultancy work performed by the presumed consultant to warrantpayment of such whooping amount of money. It is on record that NigeriaGovernors Forum had hired a Consultant on behalf of all the States of theFederation on the same issue. The Committee is about to conclude itsinvestigation, and certainly recover the amount fraudulently paid to the socalled consultant”.
The committee chairman also mentioned the 4.5km CBN Roundabout – Federal Low-cost -Railway Round about road that is yet to see the lightof the day.
“This contract is the most controversial of all the contractsawarded under the administration of former Governor Mohammed AbdullahiAbubakar. The 4.5km road contract was originally awarded at the costN2,328,679,294.33 on 3rd November, 2015. The Committee observed that thiscontract has been reviewed two times, in the sum of N1,744,338,324.33 andN2,428,995,536.88 respectively. As at today, the contractor has been paid atotal sum of N2,786,321,283.45. The Committee’s valuation of work done to dateis only N1,318,692,684.54, implying that an overpayment to the tune ofN1,467,628,598.91 has been made to the contractor, Messrs QUMECS NIG. LTD.”
“It is disheartening that after all these payments, work wasabandoned and the contractor is not on site. The upward review of thiscontract, the Committee observed, was done illegally which led to theoverpayment as mentioned”, Isah Hammah Misau stated.
