By; IBRAHIM DANGANA
Senator Muhammad Adamu Aliero, the former two-term governor of Kebbi State and three times senator, is once more in the eye of the storm after allegations emerged that he serially cornered and diverted at least three gigantic constituency projects worth more than one billion Naira.
The Senator representing the Central Senatorial District of the State now in his third term in the upper chamber of the National Assembly was alleged to have used his clout to corner the direly needed developments meant for the District to his farm and that of his crony.
According to the list of approved Constituency Projects in the 2017 Appropriation Act executed by the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, the projects include the construction of Feeder Road which was awarded to Aliero’s Great Northern International Company (GNIC) at Gante for evacuation of agricultural products from farmlands to towns and cities in Kebbi Central Senatorial District worth #200,000,000.
Another project cornered by Senator Aliero was the supply and installation of Central Pivot Irrigation Pumps with sprinklers also in Gante village of Kebbi Central Senatorial District worth #264,000,000.
Similarly, the contract for the supply of Massey Ferguson tractors meant for farmers in Kebbi Central Senatorial District worth #200,000,000 and all the tractors delivered to his Labana Farms.
The anger of people in Aliero’s Senatorial District is that Gante village is under Lafagu/Gante ward of Kaoje District in Bagudu Local Government Area of Kebbi State.
Aliero’d Labana Farm at Gante is under Kebbi North senatorial district of Senator Yahaya Abdullahi, the incumbent Senate Majority Leader.
Their anger is exacerbated by the fact that during Aliero’s first term as Senator, the #2 billion Naira Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention under the Anchor Borrowers Programme was also cornered for the exclusive development of his Labana Farms.
The questions on the minds of everybody in the Kebbi Central Senatorial District is how much will be enough to satisfy the Senator and his callous cohorts and when will the dividends of democracy begin to trickle down to the people for whom the projects were meant and who really need them?
With the 2023 General Elections just around the corner, the hapless electorate are poised to show Senator Muhammad Aliero the way out and unless he makes restitution, their next move may be to legally confiscate what rightly belongs to them. Only time will tell.
Ibrahim Dangana, writes from Alanbelu Sanchi, Zuru LGA,Kebbi State he can be reached via 081110017974
