Why Bala Mohammed Should Be Careful With His Appointments, The Case Of Salihu Ladan  As An Example-Bibi Dogo

For Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State, he may have won his election just like other state governors, but one of the things that may be his biggest undoing is the choice of persons he is giving appointments to and those he also planned to appoint subsequently.

One of those universalreportersng.com gathered is pushing for an appointment in the new government is Salihu Ladan who was the spokesperson for the Governor while he was contesting for the office of the Governorship.

However, as gathered by universalreportersng.com, rather than wait for him to be appointed, Salihu Ladan has been assuming an official spokesperson position for the Governor, a move many stakeholders in the State has frowned at while condemning his usurping of powers.

Among the Stakeholders who has frowned at what they called the many excesses of Salihu Ladan, is a civil society group, Bauchi State Coalition against Financial Crimes and Injustice (BACAFCI), who has called on the Governor to be careful of those following him and claiming to be working for him, even when they have not been appointed by him officially.

Speaking with this medium, the chairman of the group, Alhaji Bibi Dogo, said one of the acts of Ladan that have shown that he is not competent enough to be the official spokesperson the Governor is the recent statement which he Ladan signed on behalf of the Governor.

The statement dated 3rd June and signed by Salihu Ladan as the spokesperson to the Governor, saw Ladan saying that Bala Mohammed while as Governor-elect reached out to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to effectively block the State Account and ensured the full recovery of the entire amount of N14. 5 billion infrastructure refunds accrued to the State via a release from the Federal Government.

BACAFCI’s chairman, Alhaji Bibi Dogo while speaking to this medium, said Ladan than ranting on what he doesn’t know it is being done, should have found out or made research of how blocking of an account should be done, the steps that need to be followed.

“That is what I am saying that Ladan even though he has not been appointed as the spokesperson, is not competent and fit to be the spokesperson, Ladan should have known that before EFCC will block an account of the State there must be a court order asking EFCC to block such an account, but from his statement it showed that there is no such order, so according to Ladan’s statement where is order empowering the commission to block the account,” Bibi said.

“In the same statement Ladan made another blunder, he told us that the fund that EFCC blocked was money approved by the former governor to be used to pay contractors, what he failed to know is that, when contractors have been issued certificates of performances, their payment approved for them can only be stopped if only there is a committee made of experts set up to review the work done by them,” he said.

Speaking further, Alhaji Bibi Dogo said, “from what I know there has not been any of such committee, but from Ladan’s statement, he went ahead of stating how such payment has been blocked, what he failed to understand is that he is already causing more troubles for Governor Bala Mohammed with his statement as the contractors can sue the State for withholding their payments that have been approved.”

“The question I am asking the Governor is this, has he officially appoint Salihu Ladan as his Spokesperson, if he has, does he think Ladan is the best to be his image maker, and if he has not why is Ladan parading himself as the Governor’s spokesperson, in fact, my advice to the Governor is to be careful of those he will give appointment or else they will ruin his government.

“For instance, it was alleged that Ahmed Yerima resigning as head of the transition committee on Media, resigned due to alleged misappropriation of funds giving to the committee by Ladan which didn’t go down well with the Yerima who has to resign even before the committee finished its assignment.

“The bottom line is that Ladan Salihu cannot make a good spokesperson for Governor Bala Mohammed, he has shown that he is just a commentator rather than an image maker,” Bibi told this medium.

“From all I know, Salihu Ladan is not communicative and articulate, he is not human-friendly, I doubt if he can work well with journalists as he is just media friendly.”