Dakingari plans to buy votes with N2.1bn —CPC candidate

From ABDULGAFAR ALABELEWE, Kaduna
Posted: Thursday, April 7, 2011

THE gubernatorial candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in Kebbi State, Alhaji Abubakar Malam has accused Governor Saidu Dakingari of plans to dole out the sum of 2.1 billion Naira to the 21 local governments Sole Administrators in the State from the Local Government Joint Account to buy votes in his favour in the coming elections.
The CPC gubernatorial hopeful alleged that, having realized that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had lost out in the state and would have lost woefully had the National Assembly election taken place on schedule, had planned to give each of the 21 local governments Sole Administrators 100 million Naira each to win.
A statement made available to New Nigerian Monday by the Special Assistant to CPC gubernatorial candidate, Alhaji Abdullahi Zuru alleged that the "decision was reportedly reached at a meeting of PDP stakeholders on Sunday at the Government House, Birnin Kebbi where the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs was said to have been asked to raise memos in the form of fictitious projects to cover the amount to be released to each Sole Administrator".
It further alleged that the first installment of 445 million Naira was released last Monday evening with 16 local governments getting 20 million Naira each, while the remaining five local governments received 25 million Naira each for the conduct of Saturday's rescheduled National Assembly elections.
The CPC gubernatorial candidate also said that he had since seen the sign of manipulation coming from the moment the governor sacked the constitutionally elected local government chairmen and replaced them with "his own handpicked" Administrators. "We knew that it was going to come to this. This also underscores the call we had been making to the Financial Crimes Agencies that the unconstitutional sacking of the local government chairman was to facilitate the grand scheme of the governor to rig these elections," he said.
While noting that 2.1 billion Naira was a huge sum that could have long before now been used to fund the poor educational, health, agriculture and other sectors that the government of Dakingari has "so abysmally neglected", the guber candidate in the statement condemned in its totality, what he described as a desperate act and urged the Financial Crimes Agencies and INEC to act promptly by investigating this unwholesome behavior of the Governor and the PDP".
"Nigerians and the people of Kebbi have faced the challenge of the successive postponement of the National Assembly Election with utmost maturity, understanding, patience and commendable tolerance with the hope that at the end of the day they would for once start a new democratic path that would be engineered and begin with a free and fair election", the statement read.
It stressed said that the governor's action was not only a disservice to the aspirations of Nigerians but also a confirmation that the postponement was capable of affording the PDP in Kebbi State the opportunity to perfect its rigging machine.
Meanwhile, the state's Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Kardi has described the allegation as "baseless and unfounded and a ranting of a drowning party."