How Governor Abubakar Is Plotting To Stop Police Secondary Training School Building Project In Bauchi—-Concerned Citizens Of Bauchi

Some concerned Bauchi State indigenes has expressed annoyance over what they termed the undue interference by the State Governor Mohammed Abubakar, on the ongoing building project for the Police, termed Police Secondary training school situated in Kafin Madaki in Bauchi State through the efforts of the House of Representatives Member, Hon. Halliru Jika, who is House Committee Chairman on Police Affairs. According to the concerned citizens of the State accused Governor Abubakar of making frantic efforts to stop the project. Below are the excerpts;

What is this project all about?

When President Muhammadu Buhari took power in 2015, the country was faced with a lot challenges, security challenges was at the peak of all the challenges, the first thing he decided to do was to add to the manpower of the police, he instructed the Police force to recruit 10,000 Police men, and it based on this regard that members of the House Committee on Police Affairs in the House of Representatives sat down and decided that since the Police are recruiting 10,000 men to boost the force, it decided to site a Police training secondary school in the North-East since, the zone is deficient of such school. So the Hon. Haliru Jika who is the Chairman of the Committee who is someone from the North-East pleaded with his colleagues to bring it down to Bauchi for many reasons which include that Bauchi is the Zonal Security Headquarters of the North-East, also it serves as transit route to Police College Wudil in Kano, so they decided to locate it in Kafin Madaki  just a few kilometers away from Bauchi town.

What is the name of this institution?

The name is Police Secondary training school, Kafin Madaki and it is in the 2016 appropriation.

Has the project commenced

The President seeing the importance of the project, quickly gave his nod on the project, and the project was to commence late 2016, but due to some challenges, such as the precise place where the project will be located, it was delayed till January 2017, delayed because the Honourable member being a patriotic son of Bauchi State, decided that on his own part he will from his personal pocket donated a land for the project having seen the how beneficial it will to the people of Bauchi. He bought the land and compensated all the owners of the land, he followed all the due process and procedures to acquire the papers for the land through the State land development board, but at a point when the government realize it was coming through him, the decided not to issue the certificate of Occupancy inspite of fulfilling all the procedures, and the project stopped.

At this point what is the state of the project?

With the intervention of Stakeholders from the Ministry of Interior, the Presidency and knowing the sensitivity of following the 2016 appropriation which is a now a law, by that it has to be implemented and the project commenced, the land has been handed over to the Police and contractors has been mobilized to site last week precisely on the 3rd of January being Friday in company of high powered delegation from the National Assembly’s House of Committee on Police Affairs, also members representing Ministry of Interior and the AIG representing zone 12 Headquartes were there.

Has the construction of the structures has commenced?

Actually the construction supposed to have started any moment from now, but the challenges are coming from other side, when we say other side, we mean Bauchi State Government who suddenly jumped into the whole thing.

Why did state government jumped in

For political reasons, yes we accept that there are political differences between him and the legislators of Bauchi origin in the National Assembly, whom he normally referred as Abuja politicians, however we don’t expect him the Governor to jump into a project he don’t know about and finding means to stop, simply because he feels threatened and thinks that by the time this project has come to be, the initiator of it, the Honourable member will you it to score political point. But what he doesn’t know is the project is beyond the Honourable member, it is beyond the work of a single individual, this is the work of the presidency, this is the work of the federal house of representatives, this is the work of Federal ministry of interior and this is the work of the House Committee on Police Affairs, yes the Chairman has a stake in making sure the project came to the state, but it is a collective work, not that of just one person, whom they think it is an enemy or a threat to them.

What action did the Bauchi State Government did to stop the construction.

What they actually did was to say that the land that was allocated and handed over to the Police is not suitable for the project and as such the allocation is disqualified, we don’t know what criteria they used to arrive at that decision. They have refused to issue certificate of occupancy for the land for no reason, So what is the State of the project?

The State of project as stated, yes Land is allocated to the Ministry of Interior, through the Police Head office, we don’t know why the Governor we move from nowhere and get his security personnel and stop the contractor from working on the project.

Are there work going on now

Yes work was supposed to commence last week, but because the Governor sent delegation to go and stop the work with the reason that the land is not for the project,  the question is this what is the relationship between the Government and the ministry of Interior and the Police, this is a federal project and the Federal Government is handling this work diligently. He should leave them alone to do their project.

What was the message of his delegate?

His delegate said the Governor has another land for the project, and the land in question was confiscated from people and which some of the owners are already in court, and it is a land that someone can enter because it is a land in dispute which its matter is in court, and until there is a judgement from a competent court of law. And the land that he is refusing to be used for the project doesn’t even belong to Bauchi State Government. The land in question belongs to Hon. Haliru Dauda Jika because he paid for the land, bought it through the district head of local government where the land is situated. Infact, the Interior Ministry knows and are aware that the Land was given to them by Hon. Jika as his donation.

So what do you people seek now?

However, we want to tell the Governor we are aware that he built a school in Kumo in Gombe his mother’s place and donated it to the people there in Gombe, he was not stopped by any person not even the governor of that State, we are not worried, we also are calling on him to allow the son of Bauchi whom we identified with, who also fought his way to bring such a project to Bauchi State, that is our plea. Let allow the project on the land, we don’t want that project to be stalled or remove from Bauchi because of issues which are trivial. We are aware that of the projects he stopped, such as the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps training school that was to be cited in Bauchi, the project was brought by Hon. Ibrahim, even that of the Speaker, Hon.Dogara that he stopped him from using the State Specialists hospital for free medical treatment and others.