Bauchi Governor Repeats 2015 Promises To ‘Defeated’ APC Aspirants
Loading ...From Muhammadu Dan Maryamu
In what was described as an insult to the intelligence of those who participated in the fraudulent Bauchi State APC primary ‘elections’ that was neither conducted in majority of the areas nor peaceful, governor Muhammed A. Abubakar, on Sunday, October 21, 2018, held a meeting with the unfortunate victims of the fraud in his desperation to hoodwink them to remain committed to the ideals of the party that defrauded them.
The meeting, which was held at Bauchi Government House Banquet Hall, was attended by a cross section of the aspirants who expected a refund of at least their expended monies and possibly other accompanying genuine promises to restore their hope, which was not.
In his address, governor Muhammed, said: “I was never a party to what transpired during the concluded party primaries. I never for once met with those National Electoral Committee members that came to conduct the primary elections. They arrived, Bauchi and accommodated themselves. The only time I met with them, was when they invited us (gubernatorial aspirants) for a meeting at the party secretariat. I have no hand in any of your frustrations for blame
“But as usual, I promise to re-engage those who resigned their political appointments for the aspiration and to reinstate those civil servants that resigned for that purpose. Those of you that are in business, I shall find a way of assisting you to cushion the effect of any hardship”.
In his comment, one of the affected victims who craved for anonymity, described the statement of the governor as folk take and mere imagination, “I think, the governor has lost his bearing to have attempted to deceive us. Some of us are more exposed, educated and politically experienced than him. In 2015, it was the same promise he made to those defeated aspirants and till this moment, he has not fulfilled any of the promises. The man thinks he can play pranks. If he was not deceiving us, how comes he knows what befell us? Was he not a party to the fraud? Why were they repeatedly mentioning the name of President Buhari during the meeting after knowing well that the party had defrauded us? We are not after any compensation or appointment but after justice. The entire exercise was fraudulent and an insult to the change mantra. As the Chief Security officer of the state, the governor wants to tell us that he was not monitoring happenings during the primary elections when security agents were engaged by corrupt politicians to do their biddings? Why were ballot papers used in the gubernatorial primary in a direct primary election if not for rigging purpose? Each House of Assembly aspirant was defrauded N50,000.00 by the party in Bauchi State under a false claim. The exact amount for party form was N850,000.00 as fixed and publicized but an additional N50,000.00 was added in Bauchi state. If that amount is multiplied by 161 aspirants, it is over N8million and where is the N8million? We demanded for clarity from the National Secretariat of the party and we got the exact figure fixed. Let the governor just be prepared for our verdict in 2019 elections that may affect even President Buhari himself because we were defrauded by the Buhari party as Senator Lawal Gumau called APC. We are forced to opt for anti-party”.
Those who attended the meeting were mostly Bauchi State House of Assembly aspirants and few House of Representatives and Senatorial aspirants, including those who aspired at the August 2018 Bauchi South Senatorial by-election. Those allegedly shortchanged gubernatorial aspirants that slugged it out with Governor Muhammed A. Abubakar on September 30, Bauchi South and Bauchi Central Senatorial aspirants that are still battling the fraudulent exercise for fairness and justice at the party’s national secretariat, neither attended nor sent emissaries for the meeting but rather described it as a mere deception and an extension of foolery.
The meeting ended abruptly as the situation was getting charged and tempers getting lost. The governor hurriedly announced the arrival of some foreign ‘tourism investors’ that were at the Bauchi airport waiting for him to lead them to the famous Yankari Resort and Safari. But a check revealed that the claimed tourism investors were mere black American tourists that came to enjoy themselves not to invest as claimed.
Meanwhile, for fear of the obvious, the State House of Assembly remains under heavy security watch as defrauded members of the state legislature, earlier assured of automatic party tickets of return, have allegedly concluded plans once the House of Assembly resumes to impeach the ‘compromised’ Speaker whom the described as an ignorant stooge of the executive who behaves like a zombie before proceeding to serve the governor with impeachment notice for what most of them described as the only way to wrest the state from underdevelopment and ineptitude. Efforts to have the views of APC State Chairman on the matter proved abortive as his known cell phone was switched-off.
