20 April 2012, Sweetcrude, GOMBE – GOVERNOR Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo of Gombe State has denied involvement in the fuel subsidy fraud as alleged by the House of Representatives ad-hoc committee in its report.
Governor Dankwambo, in his reaction while signing the Gombe State Fiscal Responsibility Bill into law at Government House, Gombe urged the people not to be disturbed by the publication, saying “I have never been involved in a fraud throughout my tenure as Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF).”
The House of Representatives committee had in its report blamed the office of the AGF during his tenure for authorising the subsidy payment of N999 milion, 128 times within 24hours.
Governor Dankwambo said the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation was not responsible for payment of subsidy, stating that after he had made some enquiries, he found that the statement used by the committee was that of the PPPRA, which the AGF has no control over.
According to him, “the AGF only pays online from the source, either through the consolidated revenue account or the domestic excess crude account to be monitored and paid by the PPPRA.”
He emphasized that, in serving as AGOF since 1999 he demonstrated accountability and transparency in the way he operated and that he has not and will never be involved in a fraud.
“Don’t forget, Dankwambo is now a politician, so there can be many factors that will be added to ridicule Gombe State’s name, but be clear in your mind that Dankwambo had never committed and will never be involved in a fraud.”
The Governor then promised to get to the root of the matter in order to clear his name from the wrong misconception created by the report.