Muhammad Mailumo, Former Attorney General of Gombe state.
1)Dankwambo’s administration was accused of disposing off government properties without following the due process. Why did this happen?
I will be bold to state that there is no building or property that the dankwambo administration has given to any person. Prior to it disengagement . I know of the housing estate at Dukku road, investment housing housing estate. Those properties were sold off to individuals willing to buy since 2015. A unit of 2 bedroom flat was sold at 6.5 million Naira. I wonder if anyone in his right sense will say that that was an illegitimate disposal of government property. How much will it cost you to build a 2 bedroom flat anyway. It is very imperative to remind anyone that cares to know that does buildings were built for the purpose of being sold off to cirizens of Gombe state and that was done in pursuit of that. Landed properties, pursuant of lands and not buildings is the prerogative of every government. Let face it there is no government that has not patronised or showed goodwill to people who are with it. Who are basically citizens of the state . Is anything wrong if government of the state disposes lands that have been earmarked for such purposes to members of the state, or are told that those that benefitted from such properties came from the moon, or outside Nigeria or neighbouring state. Instead the 7-man committee, has been going about with gun throting police men recovering vehicles and other properties from former members of the Dankwambo administration. The committee chairman was announced as saying people have voluntarily surrendered what was in their possession he mentioned the former deputy governor. That is a tissue of lies and an outright indignant disposition of the truth of the matter, 5 trucks of mobile police men, visited the former deputy governor brandishing a search warrant, showing they came to recover government property. The deputy Governor with all righteousness displayed to them the receipts of the vehicle he obtained from finance ministry for the vehicle he had used as official vehicle in the last four years
2)Why did you and your aides also take away some government properties?
It is simply mischief, bundled in that form so that they can castigate and slaughter the image of HE Dr. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, and we should not make any further mistake about that. In the last 8 years of the Dankwambo administration, we are all witnesses to what that administration has done, no body who knows of his credibility will argue with the fact that he has transformed Gombe state, impacted the lives of every facet of the people. I don’t think this is the best way to pay this gentleman for his contributions to the wellbeing of the state. From the office of the governor down to the permanent Secretary in the state civil service, the extant law on monetisation allows for your status car to be sold off to him at the end of his tenure in office. The disbursement of those cars attached to the office of the governor, deputy governor and some of the serving commissioners was in pursuant of the law which was not enacted by Ibrahim Dankwambo, we have seen that done by several administrations. If you remember vividly during Goje’s time the entire house of Assembly quarters at shongo was sold, commissioners quarters was sold off on the basis of the monetisation policy which is the extant law. So whatever, disposal that was done was within the ambit of the law.
3)The panel has invited Dankwambo and some of his aides to appear before it. Will the ex-governor and other honour the invitation or wait for legal action to be instituted against them?
To set up a committee on a matter which has been settled by law is tantamount to witchhunt.This is why 4 (whose cars were seized) out of the total commissioners have gone to court 9 of the state high court to determine the action of the committee , if the court says otherwise then it may continue. But it can’t not be that there is a pending suit against a committee and the committee will still proceed.The suit challenges the legitimacy and legality of the committee. The committee is everything rolled into One; it is the judge, Court, Police, it is even the prisons before they can sit and make known their findings known to government they have started recovering properties from the people they suspect this means the committee has already made up it mind. Inuwa Yahaya, has a Vendetta because he has contested twice against Dankwambo and has failed . He should not be paying in this coin but those who live by the sword, ends up dieing, by the same sword. If this government is malicious and vindictive, it should find other means of carry out this vindictiveness and not this part it is pursuing as this part is inglorious, it will only negate rule of law and dampen it capacity to deliver on it mandate. A civilise system operates on law and legality.
4)Will you say your administration was transparent despite the allegations of stealing against you and others?
I take very serious offense to the allegation that i took away government property. I assumed office January 26, 2019. Under normal government circumstances the moment I got sworn -in to office, I should have a car waiting for me for my official purposes. Unfortunately, government processes took so much time before it arrived at delivering the cars to us. I want you to reckon that the car became my official car when I assumed office and not when it was given to me. To that extent it is justified and it is covered by the extant law which allows for it monetisation. Because even a permanent Secretary who occupied office can go with his status car. This is the way it works, it is how it has always being. I do not see how it becomes enemical and something different simply because we have a change of guard in the government house. The Dankwambo administration to a very good extent carried out it activities within the ambit of the law, the integrity of that administration is not in doubt.