FG persecuting me, my cabinet members for refusing to join APC, says Bala Mohammed

Bala Mohammed, governor of Bauchi, has accused the federal government of using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to “persecute” him and members of his cabinet over their refusal to join the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mohammed spoke on Wednesday at the Bauchi government house after receiving an ambassadorial award for safety from the Institute of Safety Professionals in Nigeria.

On Tuesday, the EFCC arraigned Yakubu Adamu, Bauchi state commissioner for finance, over alleged N5.79 billion money laundering.

Adamu allegedly conspired with Ishaku Mohammed Aliyu, managing director of I.S. Makayye Investment Resources Limited, and one Muntaka Duguri, both of whom are said to be at large, to launder N4.65 billion between June and December 2023.

However, the Bauchi governor lamented that despite the constitutional immunity, he is being named in the EFCC motion, targeting members of his cabinet.

“As a governor, someone who is the head of the opposition, my commissioner has been kept and will not be released by the EFCC,” he said.

“Even when I have immunity as a governor, my name was stupendously mentioned in a motion in a court of law in Nigeria: me, Bala Mohammed.

“I woke up to a notification where I was told I am being accused of terrorism. I don’t have to say anything. I don’t even have to go to the public court. But certainly, politics has become something in Nigeria.

“The APC-led federal government thinks they can use the courts and institutions of government, like the EFCC, to persecute and prosecute Nigerians who are not within their own party.”

Mohammed, who chairs the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum, said he would not bow to pressure allegedly being mounted on him through the prosecution of members of his administration to join the ruling party.

The governor said he had stayed silent in the interest of peace and security but warned that he would no longer remain quiet if the federal government did not stop its actions.

“If they don’t stop, we are going to declare war. I assure you, we are not going to keep quiet any longer. I won’t allow anybody to criminalise me because I’m not in their party, and I refuse to join their party, and I will not join their party,” he said.

He said despite controlling the bulk of the country’s resources, the federal government had failed to institute any tangible projects in Bauchi.

“In my state, they have not provided one kilometre of road or water. Even the security agencies—I’m the one paying them to work for us—and they have the guts to talk,” he said.

Mohammed criticised the federal government for the planned implementation of the tax laws without addressing claims of alterations in the gazetted copy.