2023: Humanitarian Affairs Minister Accused of Funding Husband’s Guber Campaign with Public Funds
POLITICS DIGEST – The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar, has been accused of diverting government funds to finance the political ambition of her husband and former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar (rtd), who wants to become Bauchi State Governor, next year.
A group, Coalition of All Progressives Congress (APC) accused Umar of diverting government funds to bribe the Bauchi All Progressives Congress delegates to nominate her husband, as the governorship candidate of the party.
The retired Chief of Air Staff joined the race for the 2023 APC party Governorship ticket in Bauchi alongside other aspirants.
In a statement made available to SaharaReporters in Bauchi, Yusuf Abdullahi Ajiya, the leader of the coalition alleged that the minister was using public money to bribe the APC delegates to select her husband.
Ajiya asserted that Sadiya Umar had enlisted APC party delegates as beneficiaries of the Federal Government Survival Funds initiative, instead of the downtrodden in the society.
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He said it was unlawful for the minister to convert humanitarian assistance to campaign funds, while calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to order an investigation into the matter.
“It has come to our notice that the minister is using survival funds to induce delegates to choose her husband in the governorship primaries.
Recently, she collected the names and account details of delegates in the name of survival funds which are supposed to be for the less privileged instead of delegates.
“Her action was meant to induce them into voting her husband, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar as the APC governorship candidate of Bauchi State,” Ajiya’s statement read.
In its reaction, the Campaign Organisation of Air Marshal Abubakar Sadique, debunked the allegation, insisting that the minister did not contravene the law.
“What Hajiya Sadiya Umar is doing has nothing to do with her Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management; she is doing it in her capacity as a woman of Bauchi State.
“They should remember that she is married to Ambassador Sadique Baba Abubakar by virtue of which she is an indigene of Bauchi State and has the right to contribute to the development of the state unhindered,” a statement from the Sadique’s campaign organisation read in part.
