Bauchi Lawmakers Passes Bill To Stop Recovery Of Looted Public Funds And Properties

The Bauchi state house of assembly has passed a bill to repeal the law on the recovery of looted public funds and properties.

In 2017, Governor Mohammed Abubakar had signed it into law, saying it would bring back public funds frittered away by the officials and other individuals close to the previous administration.

However, after losing his own re-election bid, a bill to repeal it was speedily passed by 13 of the 31 members of the house and it is currently generating a lot of argument.

Hon. Aminu Tukur said the bill was passed with an ulterior motive best known to the Speaker of the House. He said:

“It’s unfortunate that 13 members out of 31 members were called, secretly, to converge in the house at the usual time which is 10:00am but the sitting commenced 9 am.

“I got to know being a regular person that falls among the first three that comes to the House.” He alleged the 13 members were cronies of the outgoing governor who were dancing to his tune.

He said they had other plans by conveying earlier than the normal time when plenary holds. The proposed bill, he said, was the recovery of public properties from the governor’s predecessor.

“The law was put in place to serve as a deterrent to whosoever misappropriated the funds of the citizens, but since the governor failed to secure his second term in office, he decided to connive with his cronies to repeal the bill,” he added.

Kawuwa Damina, speaker of the assembly, presided over the plenary where three bills passed through first, second and third readings without objection.