The Governor of Yobe State, Ibrahim Geidam, has said his state did not receive any relief material from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for over a year despite being affected by insurgency.
The governor revealed this in a letter delivered to the House of Representatives committee on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness by a delegation led by the state’s commissioner for education, Ibrahim Lamin.
Speaking during the continuation of investigation into allegations of fraud leveled against the Director-General of NEMA, Mustapha Maihaja, Mr. Lamin said his state only received relief materials from donations by private organisations.
“Yobe has not received any correspondent or relief material from the NEMA since the assumption of the current Director-General,” he said.
The DG in his response however said relief items were distributed in the state but could not say who were the beneficiaries, who took delivery and could not provide documents to validate his claim.
The acting chairman of the Reps committee, Ali Isa (PDP, Gombe), asked Mr Maihaja to provide detailed information on who received the items, where and when during its next sitting on Tuesday next week.
Earlier during the investigation, the committee again told the director-general to lift the suspension on six of its directors, saying they were not given fair hearing before disciplinary actions were taken against them.
The committee said it was a breach of their rights to be presumed guilty before proven so. The committee had in its previous sittings demanded the recall of the directors.
They said the civil service rule was grossly abused, and natural justice turned upside down in the ways and manners the directors were placed on suspension.
The affected officers are Director of Finance and Accounts, Akinbola Gbolahan; Ag. Director, Special Duties, Mr. Umesi Emenike; and Director, Risk Reduction, Mallam Alhassan Nuhu. Others are pilot in charge of Air Ambulance and Aviation Unit, Mr. Mamman Ali Ibrahim; the Chief Maintenance Officer, Mr. Ganiyu Yunusa Deji; and the Director of Welfare, Mr. Kanar Mohammed.
