Adamawa Speaker Among Govt Shop Rent Defaulters
By Suleiman Bello
Speaker of Adamawa House of Assembly on Tuesday in a rare show admitted publicly that he is one of those who had not paid for shops allocated to the Adamawa citizens.
The Speaker, Alhaji Ahmadu Fintiri, revealed this at the resume hearing of the state Commissioner for Commerce who was invited for questioning about activities of his ministry.
Alhaji Ahmed Gorko, Commissioner for Commerce, had while testifying before the House on activities of the state market that, the defaulters at the popular market in question had resisted all attempts to recover the money and added that his ministry was considering revoking the allocation.
He told the lawmakers that the market, also known as ‘Jimeta Modern Market’, has 3,894 shops out of which 2,060 were allocated to the 21 local government councils of the state, while 1,000 went to traders.
The commissioner added that the remaining shops were issued out on “special allocation” to civil servants, political appointees and lawmakers.
According to him, out of the number, under special allocation, members of the state assembly were given 128 shops and that all the 21 local councils had fully paid for the 2,060 shops allocated to them, while traders and those who benefited from the special allocation, including the lawmakers, were yet to pay.
On the allegation by the commissioner, a member of the House, Hon. Jibrin Yelwa (PDP-Ganye) asked him to furnish the assembly with the list of the defaulting lawmakers, which Gorko responded to by allowing him some time to compile and forward the names to the house.
At this juncture, the Speaker, while granting the request, stunned people when admitted that he was among those that defaulted in payment.
According to him, he had only paid half of the money for the shops since it was allocated to him five years ago.
The shops according to the commissioner cost between N800,000 and N1 million, depending on the type.