How Bauchi Governor’s Wife, Hadiza Influenced The Continuous Stay of Yakubu Isa As Acting Chairman of Bauchi Board of Internal Revenue, In spite of Committee’s Report That Indicted Him

The Bauchi Coalition Against Financial Crimes and Injustice, (BACAFCI) has exposed how the acting Chairman of the Bauchi State Board of Internal Revenue, was appointed into office even when was he was not qualified to head the State’s Revenue Board.

In a statement signed by BACAFI’s secretary, Yakubu Jibrin he said; “BACAFCI, as we always say, it’s an organisation that frowns, and fight corruption and Injustice head on.”

Information available to universalreporters247.com indicates that the appointment of Yakubu Isa as the acting Chairman of Bauchi State Board of Internal Revenue is allegedly enmeshed in fraud.  As gathered by this medium Yakubu a former Skye Bank Staff was dismissed by the bank.

When Governor Abubakar came on board as the Governor of Bauchi State, he set up a committee to look into the issue of wrongful appointments in the board of Internal Revenue and the committee report indicated that the Acting Chairman was rejected for not meeting the requirements to head the Board of Internal Revenue of Bauchi State, according to the Committee in its reports, it was gathered that he was dismissed from Skye Bank, also that he does not have 12 years cognate experience in revenue service and that he is not within the State Service.

But informational at the available to this indicates that in spite of the committee’s report which nailed Yakubu Isa and made him unfit to head the Bauchi State Board of Internal Revenue, Governor Abubakar has continued to look the other way, as the Acting Chairman has been in the board for over two years now, and in spite of the committee’s report which call for his removal, the Governor has not done anything.

As gathered, his continue stay at the board, is allegedly being influenced by the wife of the Governor Hadiza Abubakar. Universalreporters247.com findings revealed that an errand boy to Yakubu Isa by name Mustapha Ibrahim Dimis who is of the license office is a close friend to the Abubakar Sadiq, the son of the Governor, and that the same Sadiq was the one who made it possible for the Isa to remain in office even after the report indicted him, this medium findings revealed that the Governor’s Son through his mother, has continue to make it possible for Isa to still stay in office in spite of every accusation, which the committee found out.

In a statement signed by Yakubu Alhaji Jibrin, the Secretary of the Bauchi Coalition Against Financial Crimes and Injustice, (BACAFCI) he said; “We found out fraud in the appointment of ” Yakubu Isa ” as acting Chairman of Board of Internal Revenue of Bauchi State. The officer in question was a staff of Skye Bank Plc for fourteen months, from October 2, 2008 to November 1, 2009. Investigation has shown that, he was dismissed from the services of the Bank.”

According to BACAFI, in its statement, it said; “A letter with reference number BIR/S/OFF/360/V.I of 14th/6/2011, was written to the Bank by Garba Aliyu Jalam, on behalf of the Chairman/Chief Executive,  to forward his confidential report. The Bank responded on August 5, 2011signed by two officers from Human Capital Management of the Bank. They are Yetunde Armon and Odutola Olufunke respectively. The above information was from the response of the Bank via the confidential report. Also, there was Management Audit Report on the controversial appointment.”

BACAFI said; “The investigation was thorough, and it detected that the appointment of Yakubu Isa was wrong, and did not qualified to be the Chairman, because he couldn’t meet up the requirements needed. Though, Auditor General ( Alhaji Usman Aliyu, FCNA FCFA ), didn’t sign the report, for reasons best known to him.”

In its report, BACAFI said; “the Chairman has been on acting capacity for about 24 months, manipulating his ways to remain. He created an empire, with his loyalists who are secretly giving him information about the staff working under him. He sent out levels 16 officers to outside stations, because they appeared to be threats to his position.”

More so, it said; “The Governor should know that his wife is influencing his illegal stay as the Chairman. One of his errand boys, named Mustapha Ibrahim Dimis of the license office is a close friend to Abubakr Sadiq, the son of the Governor. That’s how the influence of the Governor’s wife came in. It’s not right for the Governor’s wife to influence any government or public appointment.”

According to BACAFI, the responsibility of posting all Accountants and Cashiers is the treasury, but that the acting Chairman appointed his Accountant and Cashier from within the Revenue Office just to protect his interest and he refused to accept those posted to him from the treasury.

“In order to pave his way to the position he is not qualified to occupy, he connived with the Business Development Manager of Bauchi Branch of Skye Bank ( Lawal Yahaya ) and changed the tune of the original confidential report to another one that favoured Yakubu Isa. The letter reads Mr Isa joined Skye Bank in 2009 and resigned in January 2011. It’s written on July 19, 2011 with no reference number. Reliably, the head office of the Bank found out this fraud, any correspondence must emanate from the head office not from a branch,” BACAFI said.

Also BACAFCI, found out that most of the workers in the Board of Internal Revenue are not happy with the acting Chairman. Five vehicles of the Board are presently domesticated and are being used to do personal errands for the Chairman.

In its conclusion BACAFi called on Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakr to act fast and to replace him with an upright and most qualified person in that position.”

It is on note that, BACAFI is not the only group that has called for his removal, in 2015 when he was appointed, a group the United Bauchi State Group has enjoined Governor Mohammed Abduallahi Abubakar to dissolve the management of Bauchi State Board of Internal Revenue.

According to a press statement signed by the Chairman and Secretary, Comrades Aliyu Ladan and John Akevi alleged that the board which is headed by Yakubu Isa has proven to be incompetent as since he came on board. The group also alleged that the appointment of Isa violated the Civil Service law. According to the statement tax payers are bitterly complaining of the board failure to issue them their Tax Clearance Certificates despite prompt payment of the charge fee to the board.

It said “In fact, there is an allegation on the personality of one the Directors who was dismissed from the service of one of the. Financial institutions due to gross misconduct but unfortunately the Isa Yuguda’s administration to our dismay appoints him as the acting Chairman of the Internal Revenue Board of the state despite his questionable character.”

The statement further disclosed that the Directors appointed by the ‘corrupt government’ of former governor Isa Yuguda in order to protect his interest have attain the pensionable age of 45 years including the current acting Chairman Yuguda Isa who should be appointed on contract basis and not on permanent and pensionable basis.

“Notwithstanding, that all the Directors and Head of Departments must be within the state service and as such must serve the state for at least 12 years but unfortunately non of them (Directors) meet up the requirements of the law as published in Gazette No. 9 Vol. 35 of Bauchi state on 17th November, 2010 which clearly spell out the requirements for appointment of any person into the position of Director.”

The group stressed that as patriots they would be falling in their responsibility if they folded their arms and allow few individuals to continue to kick them around by distorting the state civil service system by bringing sentiment into the service and the case at hand is that of the Internal Revenue Board insisting that such unhealthy practice is in violation of the Civil Service rules.

They called on the state Head of Service and the State House of Assembly to as a matter of urgency set up a high power committee to thoroughly investigate the circumstances surrounding his appointment and his activities since he assumed duty as the action Chairman of the board.

The statement said, “The ugly happenings in our state, the situation has reached a deplorable stage that it is threatening to rubbish our hard earned democracy and thereby denting the humble self personality of our promising governor who is generally considered as a man of purpose and foresight, a mentor for all, dynamic, an advocate for justice, a revolutionary administrator. Barrister M. A Abubakar is a blessing not only to the Bauchi state Tax Payers but to the entire people of the state.”

Also in the same 2015, one Baba Saraki in an opinion article written by him and published by online news website, abusidiqu.com, and titled: How Ag Chair Of Bauchi Board Of Internal Revenue Forged Documents To Get Himself Employed; he said exposed how Isa Yakubu forged documents and is not fit to be in the organization, he said; “I recently read an article published online by the Peoples Daily dated 29th July 2015, about the current happenings in Bauchi State Board of Internal Revenue (BOIR), which call for dissolution of the management board. A group named United Bauchi State Group has called on the executive governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar to completely dissolve the board, and investigate the management directed by Yakubu Isa, the acting Chairman of the Board appointed by the former governor Isa Yuguda. The group professed that he is an incompetent, amateurish and unskillful for the post, and that he was dismissed by one of the financial institute due to his gross misconduct. They further bewailed that his appointment was done illegally by the corrupt Yuguda’s administration to serve his interest. He was appointed as a director and later on promoted to acting chairman for the board, while he reached his pensionable age of 45 years. This is considered unconstitutional and unlawful against the law of Nigeria (LFN 2004) section 87 PITA cap p8 and section 2. The government supposes to employ him on contract basis, not on permanent and pensionable scale, and hence, the group considers this as an illegal appointment done by the former governor’s administration.

‘Sometimes, I enjoyed substantiating information gotten from the net. Reading the published article quoted above, encouraged me to investigate this matter. In search for the true allegation above, I obtained an exclusively highly confidential documents forged by the acting chairman board of internal revenue Mr. Yakubu Isa, just to get himself employ by the board. The documents signposted that he reported to BOIR that he worked with Sky Bank Nigeria, Plc., as a Business Development Manager from 2008 until his resignation from the post in the year 2011. Usually, BOIR do request confidential report of its new employee from his/her previous employment. The board requested the report on a document number BIR/S/OFF/360/V.I dated 14th June 2011 asking the Bank to attest Mr. Yakubu’s attitude and conduct, by responding to some questions attached to the letter on the confidential report form, the article reads.”

Narrating further he said; “Surprisingly, Mr. Yakubu Isa, has already tracked the request letter through his own way. He acted immediately and responded to the board of internal revenue by designing his personal confidential report form C77 (forge forms), fill out and submitted to the board without any stamp that will indicate the forms came from the Sky Bank (an act of cluelessness by the professional civil servant in the state!!). Likewise, Mr. Yakubu drafted a reply letter dated 19th July 2011 to re-support his claim that the responses are from the Bank, amazingly, the revenue board timely didn’t receive the letter until 7th February 2012. What stopped the letter from arriving the board on time until six months later?. In the letter, it was indicated “he started working with Sky Bank in the year 2009 and resigned in January 2011, and that in the course of his service with the bank, he demonstrated a high level of competence and professionalism in the discharge of his duty”. That he is reliable and the bank recommends him for any appointment deemed for him,”

“Contrary to his claims above, I discovered that the documents are completely forged and are not originally from the Sky Bank. This is because, the bank later sent its reply to the board of internal revenue dated 5th August 2011, expressing that Mr. Yakubu had only worked with them for a period of 14 months starting from October 2 2008 until November 1st 2009 when he disappeared from the bank with no excuse. They also reaffirmed that “he is no longer in their employment records and he is listed as AWOL which stands for; Absent Without Leave, and also he is unconfirmed at the time of his exit”. Comparably, you may notice that there is contradiction, lack of moral, and decency with Mr. Yakubu’s statement. Despite his depravity and evil act, the corrupt administration of Isa Yuguda hasn’t consider these as factors that may result to the disruption of our state own financial economy. They went ahead and took Mr. Yakubu Isa as Director at BOIR and now the acting chairman of the board. No wonder, the board is wholly disorganized,” Baba said.

“Noticeably, he disorganized the revenue board by putting individuals that are unprofessional and untalented for the job. And transfer the most competent people of the board with good hierarchy for fear that he maybe replaces by some of those transferred intellects when the state governor discovered his cluelessness in financial services to the state, in ability to manage the board and above all, his guilty of forging documents to get employment by force in such a financial institute like BOIR Bauchi State. I therefore call on the good people of Bauchi State to say NO to professional crime, unscrupulous attitude, corruption, and tyranny in our financial sector. We need a free man with good character, who is not having any mischievous or vexatious record in the past to chair the board.

In view of these allegations against the acting chairman board of internal revenue Mr. Yakubu Isa, I call on the executive governor of Bauchi State, Barrister Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar, the State Head of Civil Service, and the State House of Assembly members to study the Audit Management Report and to also fully investigate this matter with urgency please,”