Sale of Nasarawa liaison Office: Tell Nasarawa your role, stop using AlMakura as sacrificial lamb —PDP tells Gov. Sule

By David Okpashi

AS tension is mount in Nasarawa following protest against alleged sale of the sale of the state liaison office in Lagos, the major opposition People’s Democratic party PDP Tuesday challenged the governor of the state, Abdullahi Sule to tell the people of the state of his role in the sale of the state property.

The party has also asked governor Sule to tell the people of the state the owner of the Apapa property sold for N80m rather than robbing the former governor of the state, Umaru Tanko AlMakura into his administration involvement in the sale of the state own properties.

Fielding questions from journalists on the protest in Lagos by the indegenes of the state who took to the streets to express their displeasure of what they described as arbitrary sales of state owned properties by the APC led government in the state, Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Nasarawa state council, Francis Orogu accused the executive governor of the state, Abdullahi Sule of playing austrige by sponsoring the protest to descredit the immediate past administration of Umaru Tanko Al-Makura.

Orogu wondered why governor Sule has suddenly realized after more than four years that citizens should take to the streets in Lagos to protest sale of state owned assets which his is part of the criminal depossession of the state of its property when there is perceived disagreement between him and AlMakura.

According to the opposition party Chairman, “This is orchestrated by the incumbent governor Sule to witch-hunt former Gov. Umaru Al-Makura because him and Al-Makura are no longer politically on the same page”, Orogu alleges.

It would be recalled that the Nasarawa State indigenes residing in Lagos State under the auspices of Nasarawa State Development Association, protested the sales of the liaison office in Lafia.

Chairman of the Nasarawa Indegenes in Lagos, Musa Ikushigya, had in a protest letter expressed dismay over the manner in which their members were dehumanized by men of the Nigerian Police Force at the premises of the liaison office.

The group at the protest alleged that the indigenes of the state were evicted from the property located at Plot 1234 Bishop Oluwole Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, on the guise of being illegal occupants.

The PDP Chairman told Journalists that the assets of the state including the Lagos liaison office were sold in 2017 during the administration of Al-Makura, wondering why the group were only protesting over the sales of the property six years after if the protest was not orchestrated..

“The members of this group are residence of Lagos State but kept quiet all this while and suddenly realized that the property has been sold. I challenged Nasarawa State Government in 2017 at the High Court when the sales of the assets came up. Though I lost the case at the High Court, I appealed against the judgement,” Orogu declared.

The PDP Chairman explained that he was not in support of the sales of the assets of the state anywhere and had made efforts to stop the action of government in that regard.

He, therefore, called for the revocation of the sales of all the Nasarawa State Government properties in the states across the country rather than singling one of the properties.

Meanwhile, the state House of Assembly Tuesday set up a nine member adhoc committee to probe the sale of government owned assets.

Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi, announced the House resolution after Hon Mohammed Adamu Omadefu, the Majority Leader of the House brought the issue under the matter of Public interest during the House proceedings in Lafia today.

The Speaker has urged the committee to immediately proceed to Lagos to begin its investigation on the alleged sales of Nasarawa State Liason office in Lagos State.

He further urged the committee to do a thorough investigation to unravel the alleged sales of government properties by the immediate past administration.

” Yes, this House under my watch has passed a resolution directing the former government to sale the state properties in Lagos and other states for infrastructure development as requested by the past Governor.

” With what we have seen in the media yesterday that the security men has sent indigenes of the state staying in our Lagos Liaison office out of the structure was unfortunate. We feel bad and disappointed.