Borno residents ‘buy’ N10m APC nomination form for reps panel chairman

Some residents in Biu, Bayo, Kwaya, Kusar and Shani federal constituency of Borno state have bought the expression of interest and nomination forms for Muktar Betara, a member of the house of representatives.

Betara, lawmaker representing Biu/Kwaya Kusar/Shani/Bayo constituency in Borno, is the chairman of the house of representatives committee on appropriations.

He is seeking re-election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The community members picked the forms for Betara on Thursday at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja.

Speaking on behalf of the residents, Adamu Yuguda, former deputy governor of Borno state, said the amount was contributed by the members of the legislator’s constituency.

“I am a member of the delegation that came to pick the form for our own representative member, honourable Muktar Betara Aliyu, who is in the holy land,” he said.

“As a community, we are here to pick the form for him. So, we are a delegation of millions of people. We want him back because of his history and his antecedence. He has done a lot and our people of course donated. He’s not even aware that we are here today. We came here to pick the form on his behalf and the grand finale for the presentation to him will be done in the local government.

“He has done a lot. If I begin to point them out, I won’t finish till tomorrow. As we speak, he has no opposition up till now. There is nobody picking the form apart from him. If it’s tomorrow that he is going to be the election, so be it.”

Aisha Ibrahim, a media strategist for Betara’s campaign, said the legislator has contributed significantly to improving residents’ lives.

“Most of the empowerment programmes he has carried out in his constituency so far have been that of the women and the youth and I cannot begin to recount them now,” she said.

“In fact, recently, he did it in all the headquarters of his constituency. One of the things he’s planning is to build an empowerment centre for women to get trained in different skills. The support from the people is massive.”