Gala Houses patronised by some members of Gombe APC – NSCDC Commandant
By Ben Ngwakwe, Gombe
The State Commandant of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Muhammad Bello Muazu, has disclosed that most of them patronising the Gala Houses that the Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, ordered to be closed in the state were members of the ruling APC in the state.
He further added that “the irony of all was that those who are coming to beg and ask for the release of the alleged suspects were big politicians from the party and not members of the opposition parties as was insinuated.”
The State Commandant disclosed this on Wednesday after the Governor Yahaya inaugurated the 16-member taskforce Committee headed by retired Group Captain, Peter Bilal, for the closure of all Gala Houses alleged to be harbouring minors (girls below 18 years) and criminals in the state.
The Governor represented by the Secretary to Government of the State, Professor Ibrahim Abubakar Njodi, read the terms of reference and said that they should carry out their assignments legitimately without fear as the Government is backing them.
With the shocking revelation of the State Commandant, the Director in the office of the SGS informed Information Officer of the SGS to ask the journalists covering the assignment to go out.
Responding, the Chairman of the Taskforce Committee, Group Captain Peter Bilal rtd, promised that he and his committee members would do anything legally possible to carry out the assignments, while disclosing that in the course of the assignments that they discovered that the Gombe State is “rotten” from the numbers of local joints where people are carrying all sorts of sexual activities with the payments of token sum of the money for the operators of such businesses.
He noted that the girls are from different neighbouring states Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno , etc as Gombe State has become a dumping ground for people of illicit activities after being chased away from other states in the zone.
Some of the terms of reference include identify all the Gala Houses and to demolish the structures where necessary and to advice government pertaining to the assignments if there is similar suggestions or otherwise to the Government for necessary action but the issues of harassment of loaders and demolition of hotels were not part of the terms of reference.
It may be recalled that Gombe State Government have received conservatively awards of easy of doing business in Nigeria with the alleged conducive environment for the investors to come in and invest.
