ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi
A group, concerned citizens of Bogoro, Dass and Tafawa Balewa forum in collaboration with some former aides to Yakubu Dogara, ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives, has accused him of betraying their trust by decamping to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
NATIONAL ACCORD had reported that Dogara who represents Dass/Tafawa Balewa/Bogoro Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, about three weeks ago, dumped the People’s Democratic Party for the APC.
In a letter of resignation from the PDP which he addressed to the Chairman of the PDP Bogoro ‘C’ Ward, Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi state dated 24th July, 2020, Dogara, said he was resigning his membership of the ruling party in the state because governor Bala Mohammed was making the same mistakes the former governor made which led to his defeat in the 2019 election in the state.
He raised six issues of unfulfillment of campaign promises, mismanagement of resources, lack of respect to elders and traditional rulers in the state, in his letter as his reasons for dumping the ruling party in the state.
The leader of the group, Samaila Shekarau, who was speaking at a Press Conference held at the NUJ Secretariat on Wednesday in Bauchi said they have been voting Dogara to represent them in the House of Representatives since 2007 because democracy allows people to vote their representative into public offices.
“However, the recent stunt defection of Dogara to the APC has compelled us to hold this press conference and state our true position on this burning issues as follows:
“That we people of Bogoro, Dass and Tafawa Balewa Federal Constituency in collaboration with the aides of Dogara Yakubu hereby wish to jointly state in clear terms that nobody has defected along with Dogara and he is not our party,” he said.
Shekarau said that PDP is their leading political party and Bala Mohammed is their leader and governor saying that their Representative has betrayed them.
He said: “We will not allow Dogara or anyone to use us to achieve his greedy political ambition only to dump us there after. Enough is Enough!
“That Hon. Dogara has betrayed the trust of the entire people of Bauchi state amidst Covid-19 global pandemic to pursue his greedy political ambition regardless of our collective interests and therefore, he is on his own.”
According to him, record available to them has shown that as the member representing Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa Federal constituency in the House of Representatives, “Dogara does not attend house sittings to represent his constituency anymore thereby creating leadership vacuum and leaving us behind in the affairs of our nation.”
Shekarau said that Dogara did not consult with his constituency before his defection nor did he consult them after that pointing out that, “this has therefore shown his level of disrespect and disregard to the constituency.
“The artificial conflict he used to create between him and the previous governors, has resurfaced again with the present governor. Therefore, as concerned constituents we disassociate ourselves with his antics of promoting his selfish aggrandizements.
“For these and many other reasons, we hereby declare vote of no confidence on him as our representative.”
Also speaking in an interview, Dogara’s former Personal Assistant, Ayuba Dass, said his (Dogara’s) persistent fight with Bauchi state governors has caused the Constituency many setbacks.
He said that the Dass/Tafawa Balewa/Bogoro Federal Constituency which Dogara represents has not enjoyed any meaningful development from the state government because of their Representative’s actions.
Dass said: “What we, the peace-loving people of Dass, Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro, want is that, when we elect a governor and we also elect our Member, they should both work together and bring development to our Constituency. We should get development from both our Member and also from the Governor.
“We didn’t elect him (Dogara) to keep fighting every Governor that is in power. This continuous fighting is a bad omen to us because it has stopped us from enjoying dividends of democracy in our areas from these governors.
“He fought former Governor Adamu Muazu, fought Mal. Isa Yuguda and he also fought the immediate past governor, Mohammed Abubakar. The reasons for fighting the governors are best known to him.
“For his fight with the APC, I know that when we were in APC, they turned him as a second-class citizen. The then governor, Mohammed Abubakar, never gave him the chance to do any project in the state despite the fact that he was the Speaker of the House of Representatives.”
He said that because of former governor Mohammed Abubakar’s fight with Dogara, not even a culvert was in the three LGAs which make up their Constituency throughout his (Abubakar’s) four years in office as governor.
According to him, all they want is for their people to enjoy dividends of democracy “but these fights draw us backwards and leave us, the electorates, on the losing side.”
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