The recovery committee set up by the current governor of Bauchi state, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, to recover all stolen government property says former Governor, Isa Yuguda gave out 64 cars to politicians, former commissioners, Special advisers and top civil servant, 24 hours before he handed over to the new administration. This allegation comes barely 2 weeks after the committee said it had recovered 22 cars the former governor gave his wives.
The Chairman of the recovery committee, Retired Air Commodore Ahmed Tijjani Baba, while speaking to newsmen yesterday June 30th said the committee discovered that the vehicles were purchased between January and May 2015 and auctioned to the beneficiaries without following due process.
“Any vehicle that has not been used for up to three years is supposed to be returned to the service pool when the officer with it is leaving office,” he said.
He alleged that the regulation was illegally amended by the last administration in 2010, to grant the state governor powers to auction vehicles below three years.
“That gives him right to auction vehicles upon an application by an allottee, but it has to be referred to the board of survey, which will determine the price to be paid. A highly placed former government official wrote on behalf of ten other beneficiaries on May 28, 2015, to the governor and requested for the vehicles without referring it to board of survey, the body vested with the responsibility of auctioning such vehicles,” he said.
