BEVERLY HILLS, CA, January 06, (THEWILL) – The Yobe State governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Gaidam, said on Monday that his administration won’t allow anyone to wrongly lay claim to the achievements of the administration.
Reacting once again to the claim by the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Yerima Ngama, that the Gashu’a-Yusufari road is being constructed by the Federal Government, Gaidam said his administration was working under extremely difficult condition, especially with the current Boko Haram insurgency and with minimal assistance from the Federal Government.
He said he will therefore not allow anyone to steal the glory of his achievements in the state.
In a statement titled: “Additional clarification on Gashu’a-Yusufari road” issued by his spokesman, Alhaji Abdullahi Bego, the governor said his reaction became necessary in view of the penchant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state to wrongfully claim state government projects as being executed by the Federal Government.
The governor said he had thought the minister was claiming that the Gashu’a-Yusufari road was executed by the Federal Government but later found out that he was referring to Gashu’a-Nguru road, which is actually been rehabilitated by the Federal Government.
“Two days ago, the attention of this office was drawn to a statement that the Minister of State for Finance Dr. Yerima Ngama, was said to have made to the effect that the Gashu’a-Yusufari road currently under construction was being built by the Federal Government.”
“We have since confirmed that the Minister of State actually referred to the Gashu’a-Nguru road, and not the Gashu’a-Yusufari road. The Gashu’a-Nguru road is under rehabilitation at the behest of the Federal Government,” the statement said.
While regretting the mix-up, the statement said : “It bears noting, though, that our reaction was actuated by persistent claims of opposition politicians in Yobe State that the Gashu’a-Yusufari federal road, which the Yobe State government is constructing with its resources, is a federal project.”
“This false claim is merely an addition to a long list of state government projects that are often falsely referred to as federal projects simply to score political points or to mislead members of the public for political reasons.”
“This is why we issued a clarification, titled ‘Yobe State Government, Not FG, Building Gashu’a-Yusufari Road’ in which we argued that the Gashu’a-Yusufari road is actually a project undertaken by the Gaidam-led Yobe State Government. We made reference to the history of the road project going back 14 years and said the Federal Government handed over the road to the state government in 2004 after revoking the first contract signed in 2000.”
According to the statement, “The Yobe State Government awarded the road to be built by EEC Nig. Ltd in 2011 at the cost of N3.86 billion. So, the purpose of our clarification in the first place was clearly to emphasise what we know to be true – that the Yobe State Government under Governor Gaidam continues to work very hard in difficult circumstances to improve the living conditions of the people of the state, including building or rebuilding federal roads that have been abandoned or not given attention to by the federal government.”
Maintaining that the Gaidam Administration has really done much intervention on behalf of the people, the statement also listed the Potiskum-Jakusko-Garin Alkali 155-km road, the Damaturu-Buni-Yadi-Magza 77-km road and the Kaliyari-Bayamari-Gaidam 109km road as some of the federal roads that the Gaidam administration has built or is rebuilding.
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