Former Katsina State Governor, Ibrahim Shema has dismissed the report of a commission of inquiry set up by his successor, Aminu Masari, to probe his administration.
His reaction was contained in a statement by his spokesman, Oluwabusola Olawale.
He said: “It is curious and unheard of that the Commission of Inquiry set up by Governor Aminu Bello Masari will flagrantly ignore the decision of Court of Appeal and notice of appeal to the Supreme Court and proceed to carry out a predetermined agenda of Governor Masari which clearly indicates that sadism, tyranny, dictatorship and blatant abuse of rule of law and court process are the order of the day in the state.
“We therefore reject this charade, scandalous, unlawful, callous and unjustified rape on our democracy and Rule of Law, and we will not accept the outcome of this wicked manipulations”.
Olawale recalled that the Court of Appeal had previously disbanded the commission because Masari did not follow due process and principles of transparency in choosing the chairman of the panel.
He drew attention of the public to a letter Masari wrote to his counterpart in Plateau State, Simon Lalong, in 2016, in which the Katsina governor requested for a specific judge from Plateau to lead the enquiry.
Olawale said the Court of Appeal’s decision to dissolve the panel was partly based on the decision of Masari to request a judge of his choice, describing it as an overt display of prejudice.
He further stated that the panel submitted its report on the same day it first sat, describing such development as the “strangest in the world.”
Masari had after receiving report of the commission stated that, “Now that the commission of inquiry has established that over N50.5bn was looted, we shall use all legal means to recover the money”.
“The looted funds belong to the people of Katsina State and we are ready to follow due process in the courts to retrieve the money from the officials of the past administration.
“The people of Katsina State need the money back so that it can be used to provide social amnesties to them.
“We are determined to retrieve the funds from those that looted same and no amount of legal huddles will prevent us from collecting the state’s money.
“The commission of inquiry has used legal procedures to unearth the financial scandals from the documents that were presented before it.
“The state government will use the facts that were presented before the commission of inquiry to prosecute those that committed the offence.
“The Katsina State Government has no intention to leave the money. All those involved will have to return the money”.
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