Adamawa State acting Governor, Umar Fintiri, who was the speaker of the State House of Assembly that oversaw the impeachment of former Governor Murtala Nyako has taken the path of what they accused and impeached Nyako for.
According to the assembly, Nyako misappropriated the states fund, awarded contract without due process and favoured only his family members and close allies.
But with just one month as acting governor, Fintiri has embarked on stealing the state dry in a desperate bid to raise enough money to fight his way to remain in office.
The acting governor had earlier this month splashed N300 million on the purchase of Prado Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) for chairmen of 21 local government areas in the state.
Aside the N300 million splashed on the purchase of the SUV’s, Fintiri also allegedly gave each of the local government chairmen who barely two weeks ago defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a sum of N5 million cash for what a government source described as rate for the initial servicing of the SUVs.
Few weeks after, he has embarked on awarding contracts worth billions of naira to his cronies without following due process.
Fintiri who has before now pushed the proposal for his continued stay in office beyond the three months stipulated by the constitution but when that proposal failed to scale through, he declared his interest in contesting the bye-election scheduled for October 11. Since declaring his interest in the contest, a move that may lead to a constitutional problem, Fintiri has gone on a stealing spree to the point of emptying all known bank accounts of the state under the cover of awarding contracts in a desperate bid to raise funds which he has been spending to bribe his way through various PDP structures at the state and national levels of the party.
Abusidiqu gathered that Fintiri has awarded a N4.3 billion road contract and another N2.5 billion solar streets light contract to his cronies who have been diverting the funds for him. Sources in Fintiri’s government confirmed that the huge contracts were awarded without advertisements or tender as required by the Public Procurement Act. This is in addition to the N300 million he spent to buy Prado jeeps for local government chairman within his first two weeks in office.
In another deft move to perpetuate himself in office, Fintiri has appointed nine commissioners and 50 special advisers while he has announced that he will appoint chairmen and members into all the state’s boards and parastatals in addition to appointing hundreds of senior special assistants and special assistants in the coming days. All efforts to speak with the itching finger acting governor have remained futile as he has refused to pick several calls to his mobile phone or reply text messages on the stealing spree which has already been generating tension among citizens who are now regretting supporting Fintiri to oust Nyako.
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