By Yahaya Audu, Bauchi
A raising party in Bauchi State, Hope Democratic Party has given governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar a three weeks ultimatum within which to fix a date for local government elections of face multiple demonstrations by members of the party.
This was contained in a letter to the governor dated April 25th, 2017 jointly signed by its state chairman and secretary, Alhaji Murtala Jibrin and Aliyu Shu’aibu Ali respectively.
Explaining there position on issues bordering the state, ” We have arrived at a decision after a meeting held on April 22nd, 2017 in Bauchi regarding happenings that affect Bauchi State citizens that we will no longer tolerate the arrogance of the Governor again in governing the state”.
The letter captioned; ‘3 Weeks Ultimatum on Local Government election/ other Touchy Issues in Bauchi State’ which was copied to the Speaker Bauchi State House of Assembly, the state commissioner of Police, the Director State Security Service and the Chairman, State Independent National Electoral Commission, the state APC chairman and the Chief of Staff Government House stated that as a registered political party it is imperative for it to draw the attention of the state government towards important issues in the polity.
“Our party therefore, wishes to advice that local government election date be fixed without further delay as it was conducted in other states of the Federation. This would in turn give credibility and sound management of resources, especially local government funds received from the Federation account,”it added.
The party warned that if the local government election is not held within the specified period, it will have no option than to organise a peaceful demonstration based on what was enshrined in the constitution.
It further listed other issues which it said the Bauchi State government needs to address which include; the release of local governments allocations, speedy completion of ongoing road and other projects.
Other issues it said were the alleged pocketing of the Bauchi State House of Assembly by the executive which it said resulted in their dismal performance, slow pace of governance and non-payment of pensions and gratuities to retirees in the state as well as neglect of the education sector.
In his reaction, the State APC Publicity Secretary, Auwal Jallah said that the precarious situation the state found itself since the coming of the APC administration delayed the conduct of local government election.
He accuse Hope Democratic Party for an attempt to score cheap popularity by joining an already irrelevant bandwagon of critics who see nothing good in the Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar led APC administration in the state.
“We are not afraid of conducting local government elections. An election is not something that you will just wake up and conduct in a day. It needs huge financial commitment, a good and prolonged planning to produce materials and involve all stakeholders in the planning for it to be conducted succesfully. So the government needs time to consider all these and prepare well for the elections,”he said.
On non-completed projects, the APC spokesperson who spoke to our reporter on telephone said that all the contracts for the projects awarded were done transparently and have a time frame and the projects are all ongoing and will be completed within the specified time frames as agreed with the contractors.
