By Sirajo Bala SB
No sooner the Gombe State Urban Planning and Development Authority (GOSUPDA), removed the illegally erected structure belonging to Gombe Good Leadership Association, GGLA and the PDP publicity materials in that location than Jibril Barde, the PDP Gubernatorial candidate daringly returned to same site and erected his campaing billboards which were adjudged as prohibited within that axis of the State capital, owing to its nearness to the Presidential Lodge and other Government establishments.
What Danbarde and his band of ‘above the laws’ do not know is that the rule of law and enforcement of same is a prime element of governance everywhere in the world.
While the Gubernatorial candidate of the People’s Democratic Party will want to appropriate the public sympathy for the demolation of the illegally erected structure, he rather is the aggressor this time, wanting to draw the ire of the regulatory agency charged with the responsibility of urban planning and management processes in Gombe State.
Despite the long standing warnings and official prohibitions extended to the owners of the unlawful structure, including 3 different notices which I also sighted , Danbarde chose to test the might of the authorities in Gombe State.
I wonder if this is the man aspiring to govern a peaceful state like Gombe? The answer is very obvious.
lt is no longer news that the Peoples Democratic Party in Gombe State is a ghost of its former self as it is now limping on crutches having lost its previous standing as a result of a rash of misgovernance, mismanagement of state resources, the scale of which has shocked and apoplexed the entire Gombe State populace.
The PDP’s utter desperation to return to power in order to continue its previous looting spree is also well known just as the principled determination of the Gombe people to oppose the party’s return is also well documented. So with abject failure staring at the PDP candidate from all fronts, the only recipe available for him is to revert to the time worn tools of calculated blackmail, truncated defamation, public calumny and unrelenting false propaganda targeting state institutions and authority as constituted. The latest victim of the PDP’s resort to infamy and slander is the Gombe State Urban Planning and Development Authority (GOSUPDA) which has been spuriously accused of ‘political harrassment’ as a result of its ‘demolition’ of the party’s illegal campaign office located close to the Gombe Presidential Lodge and other sensitive government establishments in Gombe City.
However credible evidence shows that GOSUPDA was acting within the ambit of the law as the campaign office was being constructed on land that was only on temporary permit to a purported civil society organisation, the ‘Gombe Good Leadership Associate'(‘GGLA’) which has been exposed as a front used by the PDP candidate to illegally use for purposes contrary to the initial GOSUPDA approval which clearly stated that only temporary structures could be erected on the land and that the approval could be vacated and the lease revoked by the state government at any time it deems.
Unfortunately, in his usual resort to lawlessness and impunity, Barde illegally converted the property to a political office without due process and went ahead to rush the construction of a campaign office which is also a security risk given the expected influx of party supporters ,loyalists and also thugs and miscreants on a daily basis which would pose a danger to the occupants of the Presidential Lodge as well as workers at the various state agencies nearby.
Locating the Party Office in that axis has also been reported by security agencies as a possible spying zone to Government activities.
Thus the timely ‘demolition’ of the PDP campaign office by GOSUPDA dealt with the legal and security lapses of the planned construction at once after repeated notices to desist were ignored by the PDP henchman and his cohorts.
Notwithstanding that Danbarde went out to falsely lampoon the Gombe State government on various print and social media. He is once again on a political bashing spree claiming without evidence that he and the PDP are the targets of political victimisation by agents of government.
Facts as sanctimonious as they have proven otherwise that just like his previous fulminations against the Gombe State Governor, this latest attempt to whip up public symphathy for self-serving purposes has collapsed; dead on arrival! The Gombe people now know the PDP traducers well and are conversant with their fake,false and spurious antics and thus will never accept any return to their infamous years of the locust when the party, its henchmen and top-notchers looted the state’s treasury, mismanaged its scarce resources and siphoned billions of naira from state coffers with rampant impunity.
As a matter of fact, citizens are already getting angry and brimming with hatred for him and his party.
His image and credibility ( if any) are fast crumbling like a pack of cards. His ego will soon be deflated like a helium balloon lacking oxygen.
With this infamous history in mind, the Gombe populace have overwhelmingly rejected the latest ‘demolition’ charade of Danbarde and his desperate acolytes and remain firmly, solidly and resolutely behind the state Government.
Sirajo Bala, a public affairs commentator writ from Tumfure, Akko LGA.
Note: Opinion written here is solely of the author and not of this medium.
