Reports has it that the outgone chairman of Gudu Local Government Council in Sokoto State, Alhaji Bello Bachaka, has sold his official vehicle to pay bandits over N4 million ransom to secure the release of his wife and two children.
The immediate past council chair who served between April 2021 and April 2023, revealed this while testifying before the Judicial Commission of Enquiry constituted by the Sokoto State Government to investigate sales and auctions of government property.
In his testimony before the commission’s presiding judge, Justice Mu’azu Pindiga, on Tuesday, January 9, 2024, the ex-council boss stated that towards the end of his tenure, his wife and two of his children were abducted and such a situation forced him to sell the monetized Toyota Hilux vehicle in order to pay ransom to the bandits to release his families.
“I sold the vehicle that was monetised to me at the cost of N4.2 million, which was deducted from my over N5 million total gratuity and severance allowances”.
“I have no option than to dispose of the monetized Toyota Hilux vehicle to pay the ransom to the bandits. After bargaining with the kidnappers, I took the said amount to the bandit in one of the villages in Wurno Local Government Area of the state where I paid them the money, after which they freed and handed over the abductees to me safely.” He added.
While stating that they were not given a single kobo in the name of their retirement benefit despite serving for two years as local government chairmen, the former local government chairman pleaded with the state government to consider his present condition.
“The former administration had deducted a huge amount from our furniture and gratuities allowance to pay for the Hilux Toyota vehicles and they have not given us any documents to prove the payments for the vehicles.”
“I was invited to give what I know about the Toyota vehicle which was monetised to us by the former Sokoto State administration. The vehicles were auctioned to us with the agreement that the state government would pay vehicles money from our benefits, emoluments, gratuities and furniture allowance benefits to settle the payments of the vehicles”. He lamented.
