Friday, 2 September 2016

I’ll conduct Ondo primary despite juju scare – Jigawa gov



 The Governor of Jigawa State, Muhammadu Abubakar, has said he is not perturbed by the decision of some All Progressives Congress governorship aspirants in Ondo State to resort to diabolical means to achieve their goals.

Abubakar, who was inaugurated as the Chairman, Ondo State APC governorship primary committee, in Abuja, on Thursday, said his committee was prepared to conduct a credible exercise.

The governor said this while responding to questions from newsmen in Abuja.

He said, “A free and fair election will solve the problem. If they believe we are free, fair and transparent, they will accept the result.

“Well, in the first place, I don’t believe in juju. So, surely I’m not afraid.

“I don’t know of any imposition, my duty there is to be free, fair and transparent and I think that is the only thing that will help the party.”

He explained that the issue of identifying the delegates would be accorded the importance it deserves.

Abubakar declared that delegates would be required to provide a means of identification which could be any of the following:  international passport, permanent voter card or national identity card.

The governor advised his colleagues to cut expenditure in order to overcome the embarrassment of owing staff salaries.

He said once the workers were paid and happy, any state could move forward and be productive.

“In Jigawa, we are not owing salaries. In fact, we always pay on the 25th of every month, whether the federation account earnings come in or not.

“We are not owing at the local government and state government levels and we are not owing pensions. In fact, pensioners collect their dues on the 13th or 15th.

“We are not owing gratuity arrears as well. We are really very clean as far as staff welfare is concerned and even this week or next week, we’ll be paying the annual leave grants as promised.

“The magic is being prudent. You just have to do what you think is good for the people.”

Copyright PUNCH.      

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