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Paul Omokuvie Bauchi
Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, has alleged that his predecessor, Mohammed Abubakar, spent N2.3 billion to buy burial materials in the state.
Governor Mohammed ,spoke through his Spokesman , Dr. Ladan Salihu, in an interview with newsmen in Bauchi, said that the funds were spent between January and May, 2019.
He said that over N900 million was spent on white cloth materials used for wrapping dead bodies while over N1.4 billion was used to buy the wood for lacing the graves after burial.
According to him, the government has discovered alleged issues of , “ corruption and daylight robbery of the commonwealth of Bauchi state where billions of Naira were syphoned illegally.
“These monies which ought to have been appropriated by the state House of Assembly before expenditure, all of a sudden emanated from our treasury books. How could you imagine that a State government, within five months ; between January and May , spent well over N2.3 billion on funeral materials ?.
“The immediate past government spent N2.3 billion on burial materials but did not spend the quarter of that amount in hospitals and clinics. This a serious show of shame.”
“All these are captured in the report of the Transition Committee and these were gathered from documents and vouchers and payments made from our treasury books. There is the Freedom of Information law, go there and find out for yourself from those documents.
“ We are talking about the principle behind it. You have bought these materials for funerals in graveyards, what have you done to the Christian cemetery? But we are saying that it is wrong completely, it is not the duty of government to buy burial materials for anybody. It is the responsibility of the family, the community to bury the dead . It has never existed in our history books that government bought those materials in the first place “.
He vowed that the government would use every instrument of the law , including petitioning the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related offences Commission and other anti corruption agencies on the matter, until every kobo allegedly stolen would be recovered.
When contacted, the media aide to Abubakar , Ali M Ali , said he was not aware of such allegation.
Ali said: “I have not heard of anything like that ,so , I will speak on it when I make my findings but this is laughable. I will get back to you when I have done my findings.”
