…contributed money for lawmaker’s nomination forms

…urge him to run for speaker

By Levinus Nwabughiogu-Abuja

Constituents of the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Muktar Aliyu Betara have said that the lawmaker representing Biu/Bayo/Kwaya Kusar/Shani federal constituency of Borno State will be running in the 2023 election opposed in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

They said that the lawmaker was the only one who has obtained the nomination form from the constituency.

It will be recalled that Borno is heavily an APC State.

The constituents who spoke through a former deputy governor of the State, Alhaji Shettima Yuguda as one of the delegates told newsmen in Abuja after purchasing the 2023 APC nomination for Betara that the community contributed money to obtain the form for the lawmaker.

He said Betara has done a lot for his constituency to deserve a comeback to the National Assembly as their representative.

He said: “I am one of that delegates that have come to pick nomination form our own representative, Hon. Muktar Betara Aliyu that is in the holy Land now for Umrah but we are here, plenty of us to pick the form for him. He represents Biu federal federal constituency of the State.

“We are a delegation of million of people. We want him back because of his history, antecedent. He has done a lot and our people begining contributed 20 to N10 million. He’s not even aware that we are here today. We came here to pick the form on his behalf. This is just picking the form. The presentation of the form will be done in the local government, Biu local government.

“The community sent us. The community contributed from N20 up to N10 million. We have paid the money and we have the form. Our people want him back. He has done a lot for us: empowerment, human capital development, roads construction and infrastructure in general.

“The support is massive. In fact, as we speak, there is no opposition. There is nobody picking the form apart from him.”

Similarly, the coordinator of the contributions, Mustapha Mohammed also called on the lawmaker who was first elected into the national assembly in 2007 to run for the office of the speaker of the House when he returned.

“He has the right to aspire to any position in this country. So, we are in support of him attaining to the position of speakership in the National Assembly because he has the experience and the capacity and has demonstrated. His colleagues can testify to that and we are fully behind him to attain to any position in this country.

“Icoordinated the collection of the contributions. I have evidence here though you can see as little as N20, somebody donated N20 towards this assignment. So, it shows that the grassroot people are in support of him coming back as our representatives at the National Assembly”, he said.

On her part, the media consultant to Betara, Aisha Ibrahim described the parliamentarian as generous man, noting his empowerment programmes for women and youths across his constituency.

“He’s a very generous man, very humble and he has the people of his constituency at his heart. He a very nice man, indeed.

“Most of the empowerment programmes he has carried out in his constituency so far have been those of the women and the youths and I cannot begin to recount it now. In fact, he did it in all the headquarters of the constituency. One of the things he’s planning to do is to build an empowerment centre where women will get trained in different skills. The support women have for him is massive. It’s something we cannot even describe”, Ibrahim said.