Abdullahi Abubakar diverted public funds to the tune of N400 billion from
May 2015 when he assumed office to date.
His affirmation is in response to a reply issued by the Bauchi state
governor to the effect that the total receipt from the federation account
in the preceding three years is nowhere close to that figure.
However, the Speaker challenged the governor to take the case to court if
he is sure that the accusations are baseless, adding that an additional
1300 workers were also falsely claimed to have been employed by Governor
Abubakar in July 2015, making the figure a total of 2500 ghost workers and
not 1200 as disclosed earlier.
It would be recalled that before Governor Abubakar assumed office in May
2015, former Governor Isa Yuguda had employed thousands of political
appointees, about 4000, which increased the monthly wage bill of the state
to N2.6 billion but on assuming office, Abubakar sacked them all.
This should have automatically translated into drastic reduction of the
monthly wage bill of Bauchi state since no new recruitment into the state
civil service was carried out.
However, the wage bill skyrocketed to about N7 billion excluding that of
the 20 the local government areas.
In the same vein, thousands of ghost workers were also added into the
payroll of all the 20 Local Government Areas of the state which he
(Governor Abubakar) uses to divert their monthly allocations that brings
the total sum of money diverted within the period to N400 billion
including three payments of Paris Club Refunds and two bailouts the state
received from the federal government.
This excludes the internally generated revenue of the state and LGAs which
is not accounted for.
While cautioning civil servants to be careful not to allow themselves to
be used to doctor documents and alter records, Hon Dogara warned that they
will surely be called to account for any such action sooner rather than
later as there are credible reports which indicated that the governor is
desperately working to doctor and alter documents and records to cover up
the monumental fraud and theft of public funds.