TheCable

Labaran Maku, former minister of information, says Tanko Al-Makura, governor of Nasarawa, and Abdullahi Adamu, senator representing representing Nasarawa west; are fighting because of his mandate to govern that was stolen.

In 2015, Maku contested the governorship election of the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) but lost to Umaru Al-Makura, incumbent governor of the state.

Maku had alleged that the election was rigged.

Following a disagreement between the governor and Adamu, Al-Makura set up a committee last week to probe former governors who allegedly defrauded the state.

Adamu awarded a hydro-electricity power project in May 2004 at the cost of N5.4 billion. It was billed to be completed within 36 months. The project was abandoned after Aliyu Doma, Adamu’s successor, reviewed the cost upwards.

The senator replied saying that probing him is a waste of tax payers money.

Speaking with journalists after submitting his expression of interest and nomination at the APGA headquarters in Abuja on Thursday, Maku said he knew that there would be a fight over the issue.

“Both (Adamu and Al-Makura) of them know that they didn’t win election, both of them they know that they are sitting on a sit that they did not win, they know it and they have been confessing it in recent times of this crisis. They know Maku won the election but they upturned it now there is crisis,” he said.

“You know robbers fight at the point of dividing the spoils, so now the crisis has erupted, that crisis tells the people of Nasarawa state clearly that the mandate was stolen – I knew there will be a fight over it – all they can do now is call the owner and hand it over so the state can witness peace and development, they don’t need to fight over it.”

The former minister said from 2015 till date, things have turned worse in the state.

“In the period of this four years that the mandate was stolen, things have gotten worse in Nasarawa state, killings have multiplied. In many communities today people cannot go to farm,” Maku said.

“The government has been run in the most criminal way, N390 billion have been collected in this seven years but there is nothing substantive on the ground.”