As the battle for the gubernatorial ticket of the? Peoples Democratic Party,(PDP), in Adamawa State draws nearer, a frontline? gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of the party, Dr. Umar Ardo, has accused Governor Murtala Nyako of mortgaging the future of the state.
He described the government as a disappointment and a stifling burden on the people of Adamawa which must be removed in 2012 as a sacred responsibility.
Addressing journalists in a press conference yesterday in Yola, Ardo said that the decision by the majority of key political elite in the state to bring in Nyako in 2007 was done with the best of intention even though the manner of his nomination was subjected to heavy criticism.
But the aspirant observed that most people in the state at that time were willing to give it a chance in the belief that he, Nyako, would give the state a deserving leadership going by his past experiences.
Ardo expressed regret that? the admirations of him by the people quickly vanished immediately he took over the affairs of the State.
He said, “Immediately we brought him in as governor, the assumptions and admirations of him simply vanished. The old age did not bring in the expected fear of God. The high positions earlier held did not improved his understanding of issues, the past experiences did not served as a lesson for the present.
“On the contrary, the old age become an impulse to acquire as much as quickly as his insatiable greed can contain before the lights are dimmed while the past experience served as impetus to just do as he pleases with the peoples common wealth put in sacred trust into his hand believing that nothing will happen. In consequence, Adamawa State has today become the worst off for it in several areas of governance”.
The former special adviser to the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, accused the Nyako administration of poor leadership ability, corruption, nepotism and phantom public expenditure to the extent that the state was slowly but assuredly being push to a State of bankruptcy by the regime’ profligacy.
On the issue of governance, he alleged that the Nyako administration had systematically destroyed the basis of governmental structures in the state by means of having individuals who did not hold? official positions in government yet performing official functions and expending public funds.
Reacting to Ardo’s allegations the state Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Abdulrahman Jimeta, described most of the allegations as baseless and unfounded. He added that the allegations by Ardo were that of a frustrated academic who have no knowledge of governmental processes.
On the issue of deductions from the coffers of the local government areas, the commissioner stated that there was nothing illegitimate about the issue because it was a constitutional matter in line with the rules governing states and local governments joint account which had been existing in the state prior to the coming of Nyako administration.
He wondered when Ardo had become the mouthpiece of the local government chairmen in the state, pointing out that the chairmen would have raised an alarm if what was happening was against the law.