By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA—AS the National Assembly resumes on Monday, a civil society group, Nigeria Civil Society Desk, NCSD, has accused Bauchi State governor, Mohammed Abubakar, of sponsoring a protest against the leadership of the House of Representatives.

Gov. Bauchi-Mohammed-Abdull

The protest, according to the group, is scheduled to hold today at the National Assembly.

But the governor in a swift reaction, debunked the allegation, saying it was a plot by the speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, to bring his reputation to disrepute.

The governor, who spoke through his spokesman, Comrade Sabo Mohammed, said: “The governor is not even aware of that allegation. It is a plan to put his reputation in disrepute. Dogara should go to the National Assembly and face his problem squarely.”

However, the group in a statement signed by Emeh Friday Eleojo and Ijewa Zeb Obioma, National Coordinator and National Secretary respectively, also accused the governor of using a civil society group, known as Conscience Nigeria, to carry out the protest.

The group, which claimed to have evidence of the governor’s alleged sponsorship of protest against the Speaker, claimed that Abubakar had paid millions of Naira to some CSOs to organise rallies across the country against the speaker.

Recall that some CSOs, under the aegis of Conscience Nigeria, had organised protests in Lagos and Abuja where they petitioned the economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, urging it to investigate the budget padding allegation.

The group stated:  “The protest in Lagos, Abuja and other places were organised by… the link man between the CSOs and the Bauchi state governor, Mohammed Abubakar.  We have it on good authority that the Bauchi State governor was behind the protest.

“The Nigeria Civil Society Desk has condemned in totality the action of the Bauchi state governor, Mohammed Abubakar for bribing some civil society Organizations to engage on protest marches against the leadership of the House of Representatives.”

Accusing the governor of doling out N30 million for the alleged hatchet job by the CSO, the group called on the EFCC to investigate his activities.

It said:  “Why should a state governor waste the people’s resources in his envious agenda to pull another down? We call on President Muhammadu Buhari to call Governor Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi state to order as his actions are antithetical to the vision of good governance and change mantra initiative of the All Progressives Congress, APC-led government.

“We also call on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to beam their torchlight on the activities of a governor Mohammed Abubakar as we are persuaded that there are more to his unwholesome activities than meets the eye.”