Paul Orude, Bauchi

An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Bauchi State Campaign Director-General of the campaign organisation of previous governor Mohammed Abubakar, Honourable Aminu Muhammad, has alleged that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) misled the electorate to capture the governorship.

Hon Muhammad, who holds the title of Dan Maliki Bauchi, claims the PDP had dished out misinformation to the public in order to wrest power from the APC in 2019.

The former federal legislator, who represented Bauchi federal constituency in the House of Representatives, made the remarks in an interview with Daily Sun in Bauchi.

‘When PDP was seeking the office of the governor of Bauchi State, what they thought was wrong, I am sure by now they have found out that it wasn’t wrong,’ he said.

‘For example, there was an accusation by the then Speaker Yakubu Dogara that every month billions of naira was moved fraudulently in the name of salaries.

‘Our salaries then was about N5 billion but, when they came in within days, if it was a fraud maybe they added the fraud because the salary jumped to N7 billion and there was no particularly recruitment,’ he stated.

‘So they must have realised by now that they misled the public and that profoundly affected the outcome of the election because if I was an ordinary voter and I was convinced by that misinformation I will certainly not go for APC. There are many instances related to these kinds of example,’ he added.

‘The MA Abubakar administration was not taking money in the name of salary only to divert to private use. It has never happened. I am sure now MA Abubakar must have been exonerated, the APC must have been exonerated,’ he said.

The Dan Maliki Bauchi said he was neither condemning nor praise the PDP led administration of Governor Bala Mohammed, saying the APC needs more time to assess the administration.

‘The one-year assessment should be able to see clearly the direction that the PDP government is going. I haven’t seen that. But I wish the government well,’ he said.

‘The Government of Bauchi State does not belong to PDP alone. It belongs to all the people of Bauchi State. Yes, PDP is at the helm of affairs but it is our government whether you are a politician or not, a party man or not, we are stakeholders, and so we wish our government well.

‘Even though it is led by the PDP, we will never wish them bad. We want progress to take place in Bauchi, even if it is greater than the progress witnessed during the APC. That is what we want and that is why I am participating in politics so that we can contribute our quota towards the development of the state in many respects. You don’t have to be in government to contribute to the development of the state. They must have identified their challenges. I hope they overcome it so that Bauchi will move forward.’