Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State is swimming in N400 billion mess and he has been exposed by Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara.
The lawmaker revealed that;
“Governor Mohammed Abubakar has defrauded Bauchi State of N400 billion in the last 3 and half years. I have a documented evidence to prove the allegations and I am challenging the governor to seek redress if the claims are false.”
“The fraud was committed through ghost workers in the state civil service. Thousands of non-existent people were employed in 2015 shortly after the governor came into office. The ghost workers numbered 1,200 with salaries ranging between N39, 000 and N86,000 and above.”
“A perusal of one of the documents indicates that not fewer than 1,200 people were said to have been employed and added into the state’s payroll beginning from July 2015. However, one of the ghost employees by name, Bappale Adamu, was said to have been born in 1899, which is 120 years ago and started work with the Bauchi state government on July 24, 2015, and will retire from the service in 2023.”
“Another startling revelation showed that all the 1,200 workers, though have different names and dates of birth, have the same Bank Verification Number (BVN), meaning that their entire salary was being paid into one and same bank account under different names. The salaries vary from N39,000 to N86,000 and above.”
“I also wondered how Bauchi State monthly salary skyrocketed from N2.6 billion per month in May 2015 to N7 billion without recruitment of additional workers, especially as the governor had early in his administration, fired thousands of political appointees engaged by former governor Isa Yuguda, which should have reduced the state’s wage bill drastically. He also accused the governor of diverting billions of local government funds in the last 3 and half years.
“In August 2016, political leaders and stakeholders from the state led by the Speaker sought President Mohammadu Buhari’s intervention on the non-payment of salaries which didn’t yield any result and has been the major source of disagreement between the Speaker, political leaders, stakeholders and the Bauchi state Governor.”