Following the long battle between Abdulraham Abubakar Isa, Member representing Mubi south and the 24 lawmakers at the Adamawa House of Assembly. Our correspondent in the state, TOM GARBA in an interview with the Chief Whip of the House, Hon. Hassan Mamman Barguma who represents the people of Hong constituency in the state House of Assembly speaks on all the allegations levelled against the Governor, the other lawmakers in the House and exposed many dirty deals of bribery and corruption allegations, alleged to have been committed by the embattled lawmaker.
The Excerpts:
Sir what do you have to say on the recent happenings in the Adamawa state House of Assembly, where by one of your colleague is alleging that the other lawmakers in the House are conniving with the Governor to siphon money which belongs to the people of the state.
You see the issue of legislation, as an institution is about three things; to make laws, to amends laws and to repeal laws; other duties are the oversight functions to checkmate the excess of the Executive arm of Government.
I rather tell you that what’s happening is just that Abdulraham is building a skyscraper of lies, building a falsehood propaganda on the ground of the simple fact that discipline must be applied on any derailed lawmaker who is going contrary to the provisions of the law guiding the formation this Honourable House.
We are aware of him peddling lies and accusing Honourable colleagues over the Media to have collected money by the Governor and gang up against him for a suspension given to him. Let me tell you what actually led to his suspension, it’s in our laws in this Honourable House that any issues whether pending or is subject to approval should not be discuss outside the House plenary. You can agree with me that information is very sensitive, we are in the floor of the with the same suspended lawmaker where a motion was raised to approve a letter for the Governor in order to secure a loan that pay salaries and the House unanimously agreed and Abdulraham answered “Yes” in the affirmative but only to go and organised a Press conference feeding the people with difference information that will lead to suspicious and anarchy in the state.
He alleged the Lawmakers are collaborating with the Governor to steal money from the coffers of Adamawa state.
The fight between him and the Governor is all left to him, I can’t talk for Bindow ,because I cannot go into it, Abdulraham is like Bindow’s political son, that even his membership form according to him it was the Governor that bought it for him, but even as at that I don’t think he is to go that far fighting the Governor, if there are issues he discovered the Governor is going contrary, he is only to write a report to the Honourable House where the House can mandate a committee on public accounts to investigate the matter. Let me to tell you this, that committee is the only committee that has the mandate to investigate the financial activities of the Governor. For him to levelled this kind of allegations against us to me is an act of blackmailing and denting our image just because we removed him from Chairman Committee on Finance Appropriations and Budget.
Then On what grounds did he take you to EFCC?
For you to understand Abdulraham don’t know what is doing, how will he say we over looked the Governor N3 billion overdraft money he collected in the Bank to pay salaries? For heaven’s sake the Governor has the right to access overdraft without a notice to the House, only loans we can debate on for approval for him.
For him to drag Gov. Bindow and Assembly to EFCC for misappropriating bailout fund, has already exonerated the House, because we don’t have any business with any bailout fund, our own is checkmate the implementation of the funds and to make sure the money is use for the intended purpose. Our committee in public accounts will be monitoring the implementation of the bailout fund. So whether the Governor misappropriate the bailout, that can be revealed in no distance time as the issue according to Abdularahaman is with EFCC and I don’t think what he raises against us can make a case.
All what I know is that the member petitioned EFCC requesting to investigate the leadership of the House over N49million the house obtained from the government in the name of publication of standing rules booklets. You see the House is an entity of its own, it runs independently, is he saying that we should not award contract or what? We came on board there are many laws were amended, some were about to made , a lot of changes has taken place and that we say all the changes being effected must reach the 21 LGAs in the state, so what is wrong in that?
He is saying that the N49 million that was paid into an account of the state House of Assembly from the state local government joint account was not intended for the stated purpose of publishing standing rules, which he claimed the lawmakers were not in need of. Instead, he said, the money was meant to serve as a settlement for the Members of the House who hurriedly endorsed a suspicious and fraudulent virement from the Executive arm of the Government, even before a report of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, which I headed, was laid before the house. This issue of virement he is even saying, I want to challenge him with this question; who hold the virement documents? Virement or no virement the House will always and only approve what will be of big benefit to the people of the state and cause socio-economy growth in the state.
Let me tell you some hidden truth though am saying it rather a bit late, is because we thought it’s not really necessarily as he called himself a Honourable member, we gave him the virement documents in his care because insisted that he is the Chairman Committee on Finance, Appropriation and Budget, you can’t believe it that he went to the Governor requesting 250 million before he can release the documents for him.
Abdulraham has been parading himself with the documents threatening Government officials with it if they did not give him money, of recent he met with the Secretary to the state Government, Dr Bindir Umar requesting for a bribe because he has the documents in his hands.
Virtually all the contractors constructing roads in Mubi town he met them to extort money from them, is it how an Honourable lawmaker should behave? You can equally go and find out from the entire Commissioner the lawmaker has been worrying them for money.
You are raising allegations against him now is it not rather too late? And is it not because the suspended lawmaker has taken you to court?
Yes I said it before is a bit late saying all these thing, we are pushed to say it because is misleading the people of the state with costly lies that are not genuine, believe with what Abdulraham is doing and with the kind of opposition we are having in the House that some of them will not join him to seriously cause more trouble in the House because that is what opposition party wants. Another thing is that, we are feeling there are people somewhere else that are backing and sponsoring these wicked intentions of Abdulraham, which I see as enemies of our state. I have the member on record saying that he is much comfortable where he is getting money more than all of us in the House and if we don’t bring him as Chairman Committee on Finance, Appropriations And Budget he will make sure he use all he has to deal with all of us in the House including the Governor.
He had a conversation with me over the telephone while trying to help him reconcile with all his colleagues whom he lambasted, calling them all sort of names and attest that he came to the House to be rich and gather money and the only way to get it, is to still be the chairman of the committee and he will console his people to withdraw all court cases against the House. You see he is purporting the agenda of blackmailing the Honourable House.
This Man still head a group known as integrity group and parades himself as some body that has high level of good standard to do what is right, I have him on record where is saying to have collected a bribe of two million naira from one of the contractors working in the state, it is disgusting to tell you that when I challenged him on that ground all he has to say is that his integrity is only outside the House of Assembly, but inside the House of Assembly he is never a Man of integrity because he cannot be short-changed in terms of money as that is what brought him to the House.
What is your take in the issue of supplementary budget he raised.
Every Government has the right for a supplementary Budget if need be, the House will now look at it whether is needful, you can bear me with when this government came on board they only realised 900 million naira which it cannot even pay the state’s salaries that normally over 2billion, I think in that issue is he trying to challenge the supplementary budget being pursued by the Governor without a Committee of Finance appropriations and budget which he chairs, but you see whether there are standing committee or not there are already principal committees that can manage the activities of the House. Mind you to be a chairman or a member of any committee is not a right but a privilege, that is the mandate your people send you to do, your right as a lawmaker can never be denied because is your right. Isah should know all this; the speaker can decide who becomes what in the House, chairs which committee in the House, a member cannot enforce a particular committee to be chair by him.
His behavior shows as if you are shielding the Governor, whereby you approved all letters brought to you
All the approval made in the House Abdulrahaman was there and seconded some of the motions, why is he raising eye brow now?
I’m pleading with the people of this state, please and please any one with useful information that can help checkmate the Governor, as lawmaker we can not see those deals by the Governor or have lapses on our oversight functions he or she should let us know if we cannot follow the laid down rules to check his excesses.
In all your defence what will you say of the lawmaker?
All what he is saying is nothing but lies, fabricating what is not true to the people of the state who might believe him. Believe you me I’m seeing Abdulraham as an unfortunate lawmaker in the House.
