Paul Orude, Bauchi
A former National Auditor of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) party, Captain Bala Jibril (retd), has declared his intention to contest the Bauchi State governorship in the 2019 General Elections.
Jibril, a member of the Presidential Campaign for Buhari in 2015, made this known while addressing a press conference held at the NUJ Secretariat on Saturday.
The former CPC partyman alleged that the incumbent Governor Mohammed Abubakar deceived President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to the state on a two-day visit on Thursday to commission farm equipment, which, Jibril alleges, the Abubakar administration did not purchase.
Warning Bauchi residents that thuggery had been reintroduced into state politics, Jibril, accompanied by hundreds of supporters, said he accepted the agitation of the downtrodden, women, youths, civil servants, pensioners, traditional rulers, artisans, market men and women and the business community and the political class, who beckoned on him to run.
Jibril, who will run on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019 if he is able to defeat Governor Abubakar, said: “I agreed to step in as the arrowhead of a collective mission to rescue Bauchi State from the path of destruction, bankruptcy and inept leadership.
“I formally throw by hat in the ring with a big YES. I will run for the governorship of the great state of Bauchi on the platform of my party APC come 2019,” he declared.
Jibril lamented that the state had lost its glory under the leadership of Abubakar, who he accused of being responsible for the division within APC in the state.
He said Bauchi had become “a laughing stock with the status of a pariah within the comity of states in the federation,” and labelled Abubakar as a leader who neither respects traditional institutions nor leaders of faith-based organisations and treats them with “contempt”.
Jibril, in company with Honourable Jibril Aminu representing Lere/Bula constituency in Tafawa Balewa, observed that Bauchi State has been at its lowest ebb since Abubakar’s leadership in 2015
He alleged that Governor Abubakar has displayed “gross incompetence, sheer absence of knowledge of the rudiments of leadership culminating in running the government by trial and error,” whilst lamenting that the citizens of Bauchi State have been short-changed.
The governorship aspirant alleged that the state has fallen into the hands of “an opportunistic ruler whose sole aim of leadership is personal aggrandizement.”
He said that it was sad that, under Abubakar, senior public officials are contractors and consultants of the same government.
Alleging that there is massive corruption in the Abubakar administration, Jibril disclosed that, among other complaints, the governor and his sons travelled overseas on business class ticket with an estacode of six thousand dollars.
Jibril said that he has entered into a covenant with Bauchi State and that when he becomes governor, “I will not steal your money, will not allow stealing, will not hire mercenaries to help me loot. I will respect traditional leadership and heads of faith-based organisation. I will listen to all sides ahead of decisions, and I will right the wrongs.”
Earlier, Aminu Tukur, APC member representing Lere/Bula in the House of Representatives, and Director, Campaign Organisation of Bala Jibril, made known his decision to run for the Senate to replace the seat of late Senator Ali Wakili who died in Abuja last month.