Gov-elect: Adamawa has been bruised… I’m ready to step on toes

Ahmadu Fintiri, governor-elect of Adamawa state, says he is ready to step on toes to address “injustice” by the  administration of Jibrilla Bindow, outgoing governor of the state.

Fintiri made this known while receiving the report from a 67-man transition committee in Yola, the state capital, on Saturday.

He said findings by the committee revealed lots of breeches and mismanagement of government’s funds.

“We shall rise and boldly face the challenges, fully conscious that we were voted to fix them. We will not turn a blind eye to breaches of the law, mismanagement of funds, or abuse of privilege,” he said.

“Adamawa state, our only home has been battered and bruised but I am optimistic that it will heal.

“Let me restate the call on our people to join hands in the task of correcting the ills of the past. In doing so, we shall not hesitate to step on toes where public interest has been compromised.

“As a corrective government popularly elected by the people, we will not hesitate to step on toes in the interest and advancement of public good.”

While lamenting that the outgoing administration received about N332 billion federal allocation with nothing much to show, Fintiri said his administration would look into the report in detail.

Presenting the report earlier, Aliyu Isma’la, chairman of the committee, said the outgoing administration “messed up” the state in various sectors, leaving a debt of N115 billion.

“It is disheartening to note that the outgoing government had, from inception, always been taking over-draft to augment salary payments while internally generated revenue were being collected but not applied judiciously in the interest of tax payers in the state,” he said.

“While also the government had failed to create businesses for the state and even resort to the sales of state-owned assets in corporate organisations simply to service personal interest.

Ismaila said the committee found out that some of the lands sold out by the outgoing administration included school land and a historical German cemetery of 1948.