The publisher of DESERT HERALD newspaper, Mallam Tukur Mamu, has reacted to the press release issued by the embattled FCT minister, Sen. Bala Muhammad, from his base in Dubai where he went on self exile due to desperate plots by the FCT minister, the FCTA director of treasury, Ibrahim Bomoi and their accomplices in the police to eliminate, implicate or arrest him.
Mamu noted that the present corrupt FCTA administration finally decided to respond to him with such glaring frustration because they painfully realised but very late that they cannot manipulate and deceive the system and tax payers forever.
He said he was not surprised that they deliberately avoided serious issues of public interest that indicted their conduct and put to serious question their corrupt stewardship at the FCTA in their press release, and instead, and as usual, concentrated on insulting his person and making claims they woefully failed to prove against him in a court of law.
He said since they decided to talk, the public expected nothing from the minister and his corrupt officials than to dispute his claims and tell Nigerians why the nation’s federal capital remains even more dilapidated with virtually all the structures they met decaying six years after Bala took over the helms of its leadership and at a time the FCTA received from the federation account the highest allocation ever in its history.
He added that as soon as the new government comes on board and beyond what Sen. Bala Muhammad wants Nigerians to believe, the public should know what was actually generated internally by the FCTA in terms of revenue in his six years misrule of the territory. He said the public must also know the exact amount Bala collected from the federation account during the period and compare it with the structures provided by the FCT administration under him to see if they are commensurate with the billions he collected.
Mamu said current attempts by the likes of the criminally-minded Ibrahim Bomoi to falsify and distort the actual financial records of the FCTA under Bala will never work, as there are patriotic staff among them that are very willing to give Nigerians proper account of all that Bala Muhammad and his cohorts are busy distorting and falsifying to confuse, mislead and technically force the new government to accept their bogus claims of highly inflated expenditure.
Mamu revealed that the Freedom of Information Act will be fully exploited when the new government takes over to scrutinise and study all their handing over submissions/claims as well as request relevant books in the office of the FCTA Director of Treasury to be able to unravel all the criminal technicalities the auditors hitherto ignored.
He said patriotic insiders are also very willing and ready to assist the new government in that regard.
Tukur Mamu described the content of the FCTA press release as childish, hugely unprofessional and a deliberate departure from the real issues on ground. He said a competent spokesman should always concentrate on addressing issues and bringing facts on or against claims instead of wasting public resources abusing with frustration their perceived enemies.
He listed some of the posers the FCTA administration under Bala Muhammad must provide answers to before he comes with his facts after May 29. The posers, according to Mamu, include corrupt enrichment and corrupt ownership of choice housing estates in Abuja by the FCTA minister and the de facto supervising officer of the ministry, Dame Patience Jonathan; properties acquired by Ibrahim Bomoi and the two billionaire sons of the FCT minister also in choice locations of the FCT; why Abuja and most of its environs largely depend on boreholes and water vendors despite the billions injected by Goodluck Jonathan’s federal government in the water sector of the FCT; the person/persons that benefitted from the controversial Abuja streetlights multibillion naira contracts over the last six years and why the nation’s capital remains in the dark despite the billions.
“We will also like to know why they only chose to rush substandard streetlights installation now and after losing election to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari; which ministry actually mobilised N500million and bribed election officials to ensure by all means that President Jonathan is not defeated during the presidential polls at the FCT? Is there actually a rush and fraudulent recruitment exercise by Bala Muhammad to cover his excess loot ahead of his inevitable exit as exclusively reported by DH SMS Alert? Did our report finally save the FCTA resources or not? Maybe they still don’t know who Alhaji Lai Mohammed is. He cannot comment on DESERT HERALD report, and he even emphasised it, without verifying his facts,” Mamu said.
Continuing, Mamu said among other posers Bala and his men should have answered him is what is the condition of government-owned public schools under the FCT during Bala’s uneventful tenure as super minister? Are there massive scandals at AGIS under him and what are they busy secretly doing now at AGIS to correct the criminality and corruption? Which ministry and under which minister was the infamous Buhari certificate forgery fabrication plotted and financed through the media as was done in my case? The same people that are calling me all sorts of names, saying that I am a blackmailer, didn’t they accuse and say worse things about Buhari, Bola Tinubu, Lai Mohammed and many other prominent Nigerians with impeccable integrity?”
“These are just few of the posers and real issues (not abuses) Mamu told this reporter they must be busy replying him on. He said any so-called journalist that believes the compromised leadership of the NUJ under Garba Mohammed by its constitution has the powers to blacklist any duly registered paper or its publisher or to stop such a paper from production is the one that is actually junk and lacking in knowledge.
Mamu wondered why almost two years after the sponsored campaign against DESERT HERALD, the NUJ and their paymasters in the FCTA could not impose the so-called blacklisting of the paper and its publisher, adding that instead, the paper’s readership and circulation base increased.
He said beyond what Ibrahim Bomoi’s ‘friends’ in the APC deceive and misled him for, the APC leadership is not stupid and is privy and very much appreciate what he and other Nigerians dedicated their lives for and assured Nigerians that the APC as a party that campaigned for change will certainly work with him and other concerned Nigerians to correct the massive ills Bomoi and others like him inflicted on the nation.
Mamu revealed that if evidences of corruption and corrupt enrichment against the FCTA officials at the disposal of his paper are anything to go by, current efforts by particularly Ibrahim Bomoi through massive bribery of some APC stalwarts to be appointed the next Accountant General of the Federation, AGoF, by the new government no matter his deceptive CV will never work because according to him they will resist it with verifiable justification and not through noise or abuses reminiscent of the FCTA under Bala. He said instead of bribing his way to be appointed the AGoF, Bomoi should be more concerned with how he will successfully proceed on his pre – retirement terminal leave which will be due in September according to records at our disposal.
Source – Leadership newspaper
