JUST IN: Bauchi State Govt. Offers Reasons For The Demolition of Reps Member's House

By: Luka Daniel (Bauchi),

Following the demolition of a house belonging to a Memeber of the House of Representatives for Bauchi Federal Constituency, Hon Yakubu Shehu Abdullahi, last week, Bauchi State Government has explained that, “due process was not adhered to in the whole process of acquiring the property”.

The Special Adviser to Governor Bala Mohammed on Media and Publicity, Comrade Mukhtar Gidado, made this known, while briefing the press on the saga that followed the demolition of the house located at No. 7, Buba Yero Road, Old GRA Bauchi on Monday.

Mukhtar said, it was necessary for government to set the record straight and disabuse the minds of the general public, pointing out that “on the 1st of October, 2021, the State Government demolished an ongoing illegal construction work at the house under reference”.

According to him, the decision of the government to demolish the construction work was to comply to an “existing policy of the State Government that allows, subject to the approval of the Governor for some of its residential houses to be sold to their occupants on owner-occupier basis”.

Mukhtar said however that, “government’s houses along Buba Yero Road, Old GRA, Bauchi popularly referred to as Commissioners Quarters are exempted from this policy”.

“The said House, No. 7, Buba Yero Road, Old GRA, Bauchi was allocated to the State House of Assembly to serve as a Guest House on 23/6/2014”, the SA said.

He said in disregard to the exemption of Houses along Buba Yero Road, the then Commissioner for Works, Land and Housing under the previous Administration, Alh. Abubakar Tatari Ali allocated the house to himself, using fictitious name of one Mohammed Kabir of Danjuma Goje Street,Bauchi.

Comrade Mukhtar revealed that the House was later sold to Yakubu Shehu Abdullahi the Member representing Bauchi Local Government at the House of Representatives at the cost of Nine Million Naira (N9,000,000.00).

He said, despite violating the government policy exempting the house from the owner-occupier scheme, there was no record either in the treasury or Ministry of Housing to show that the amount was paid into government coffers.

Mukhtar Gidado further explained that, the purported sale of the house did not follow due process because the value of the house was not assessed by relevant government agencies and approval of the State Chief Executive was not obtained.