Mallam Isa Yuguda

The Governor of Bauchi State, North East Nigeria Mallam Isa Yuguda is the latest key functionary to come under the klieg light of the  legislature on account of alleged mismanagement and appropriation of over N8.1 Billion about (81 Million Dollars) meant for road rehabilitation and wide ranging construction projects.

Bauchi State Lawmakers exercising their constitutional oversight to ensure checks and balance in handling the affairs of the state by the executive arms led by Governor Isa Yuguda, is scrutinizing the circumstance and procedure used to award such a huge contracts to "a little known firm and inexperience firm, Sino-Rich Fields Limited.

Sources told Pointblanknews.com that the lawmakers are not only concerned about the possibility of hyperbolic price tag on the project, the clear absence of a requisite structural design" on such a key road project calls for concern because of the implication, first, for safety of life and, second, the toll on state finances.

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Pointblanknews.com Northern Nigeria Bureau investigative reporters learnt that the affected road projects include the Alkaleri-Futuk and Ningi-Bura road contracts which were awarded at the cost of N2.9 billion to cover a distance of 88kilometers but allegedly without a professional design the project. The Ningi - Bura road awarded at the cost of N5.2 billion to cover a distance of 113 kilometers but allegedly awarded to a company which only specializes in water and water related projects,  has also been queried by the Assembly.

Presenting the report, the House Committee Chairman, Honourable Sale Abubakar Dumba, opined that the lawmakers were shocked to uncover that the Alkaleri-Futuk Road was awarded by the governor before obtaining an approved design while in the actual contract agreement, the contract sum covers both the design and construction.

The contractor, Sino-Rich Fields Limited, allegedly collected 60 percent mobilization fees before even visiting the contract site", but regretted that only 3.5 kilometre road clearance and top soil removal has been executed, five months after the flag-off of the project.

The lawmakers said that the Ningi-Bura road which was awarded to China Zhonghoa Nigeria Limited, also suffered the same fate as only five-kilometre clearance and top soil removal has so far been executed, adding that the committee has decided to bring out the scandal to the people of the state so that, "posterity will know we have done our best."

In a swift reaction to the Committee's report, the state chapter of the Action Congress has petitioned the EFCC and ICPC over the scandal and several others that threaten the economic viability of the state. 

In the petition which was signed by the party's state administrative secretary, Alhaji Hassan Ahmed Ningi, it was stated that the governor has erred by approving a road contract of such magnitude without proper design to determine the cost of the project.
According to the petitioner, there is no where in the world, except in Yuguda's administration where roads/building contracts are awarded without an approved design.

"for God's sake, how did the government arrive at the cost of the contracts without a design?" Hassan  queried.
The petitioner further stated that the State Assembly has found the governor guilty of awarding the Ningi-Bura road contract to a foreign company that specializes only on water and water related services."

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Hassan added that since the projects were awarded without the required designs which would have determined their actual cost, "this naturally means that there is an intention to defraud the state government through possible variations at various stages of the execution of contracts by the contracting firms", he alleged.

The petitioner therefore appealed to the anti-corruption bodies to quickly step in to save the people of Bauchi State from a possible fraud, saying that the state government should also be directed to suspend the contracts until a thorough investigation is conducted by the two anti-corruption bodies to ascertain the actual cost of the projects.

Ningi also urged the EFCC and ICPC to investigate how the over N60 billion received by the state government from the federation account in the last one year was utilized including the state's share of N16 Billion excess crude oil earnings.

Also the party asked the ICPC and EFCC to find out how the N10 Billion said to have been borrowed from a commercial bank to execute some unspecified projects that are yet to materialise.

The administrative secretary also appealed to the ICPC to investigate the recent fertilizer scam uncovered by the State Assembly which indicted the state fertilizer distribution committee of short changing farmers by reducing the quantity of each bag of the commodity in the guise of re-bagging.

The party  however commended the ICPC for commencing investigations into some of the several allegations of large scale fraud in the ministries of agriculture, education, water resources, local governments and health, among others.