The wife of the past Governor of Bauchi State, Mrs. Abiodun Yuguda, on Saturday, faulted the claim by the Bauchi State recovery committee inaugurated by Governor Mohammed Abubakar, that 22 cars were recovered from Yuguda’s wives. She said the claim was far from the truth.
Abubakar had, upon assumption of office on May 29, inaugurated the committee to recover all government property allegedly looted by officials of the Yuguda administration.
The committee, in a report submitted to Governor Abubakar, claimed that 11 vehicles were recovered from Yuguda’s first wife Aisha, seven from the second wife, Abiodun; four from the third wife, Maria, while the fourth wife, Nafisah, was out of the country as of the time the committee went to recover the vehicles in her possession.
But speaking with journalists in a telephone interview on Saturday from Abuja, Mrs. Yuguda refuted the claim.
According to her before Yuguda’s tenure ended, he instructed his wives to return all the vehicles they were using while in office and they all complied.
The cars, she said, were taken to the Bauchi State government liaison office in Abuja, from where the cars were towed to Bauchi.
She said: “I had a jeep, a Toyota Camry, which I was not using, and a pick-up van with me when we were leaving office. They are old vehicles bought before 2011. On the instruction of my husband, I returned them to the liaison office.
“When my husband asked us to return the cars, my personal assistant went to my office in Bauchi and took the cars to Government House in Bauchi. No car was collected from our houses. The only government jeep that I ever used was with the government mechanic in Abuja before my husband even government. By the time my husband left office, I was already using a Mercedes jeep which he bought for me.
“As a governor’s wife, I was using only one jeep without any backup car. On many occasions, I was stranded on the road when the jeep broke down. The Peugeot 406 that was with me as a backup had an accident and up till when my husband left office, no replacement was given to me.
“The governor lied against me to tarnish my image and those of my husband’s wives. I am sure that the God Almighty I serve will judge him. He will only escape God’s judgment if those cars were taken away from our houses. What did he really want to gain in tarnishing other people’s image?
“I will advise His Excellency, the new governor, to be praying to God for him to end well instead of tarnishing the image of innocent women.”
