*Pays lawmakers N120m each

By Umar Yusuf

ADAMAWA State Acting Governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, was the speaker  of the Adamawa State House of Assembly representing Madagali constituency until last Tuesday when the House impeached former Governor Murtala Nyako for gross misconduct.

Fintiri emerged as acting governor ahead of the Deputy Governor, Bala James Ngillari, who controversially resigned before Nyako’s removal of Nyako.

In spite of the issues that Ngillari’s resignation is generating, Finitiri has been on the saddle for more than a week. A peep into his first week in office reveals a flurry of activities.

Moments after Fintiri was sworn in on July 15, the day of the impeachment, he swung into action with the dissolution of the executive council of the former governor.

He announced the sacking of the Executive council at the swearing in ceremony of the newly appointed Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Professor Liman Tukur, a university teacher with the Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola.

Thereafter, one of his major pre-occupations is avoid the mistakes that Nyako made.

He started with the legislature, his constituency, by paying 25 members of the Adamawa House of Assembly their constituency allowances of N120 million each.

The lawmakers had earlier demanded N1 billion each from the former Governor which he rebuffed.
June, 2014 salary of Adamawa civil servants was next on the agenda of the acting governor.

As the attempt to remove Nyako the accounts of the state were frozen thereby preventing the government from paying workers’ salary. However, before the impeachment on the July 15, the accounts were de-frozen to pave the way for the new government to operate.

After paying salaries, Finitiri’s sledge hammer fell on the special projects unit, SPPU which he scrapped with immediate effect.

The SPPU was established by the Nyako-led administration to empower the grassroots and about 6000 unemployed youths were benefiting from the programme before it was scrapped.

To further remove structures of the impeached governor, a Faculty of Law of the State University located in Mayo Belwa, the hometown of Nyako has been relocated to Mubi, the main campus of the university.