Bauchi State Government, on Thursday said it would soon receive 150 agricultural trucks donated to it by the Chinese Government.
Air Cmdr. Ahmed Tijjani-Baba, Chairman of the state Committee on Recovery of Government Property said that the vehicles and 5,000 units of Air conditioners were donated to the state in 2014.
He said that while the air conditioners had been distributed to ministries, hospitals and agencies, the vehicles were not supplied in spite of efforts by the previous administration.
The chairman claimed that there were attempts by some officials of the former admistration to divert the vehicles.
According to him, the deal was blocked by the chinese government which refused to release the vehicles beacuse it was too close to the general elections.
The committee’s chairman said that the state’s Desk Officer in China and the Chinese Government have promised that the first batch of vehicles would be delivered soon.
He said that the trucks would be deployed across the state to assist farmers in transporting their farm produce.
Commenting on the issue, Alhaji Mahiru Maiwada, former Commissioner for Environment under Gov. Isa Yuguda’s administration, denied that there were attempts to divert the vehicles.
Maiwada said that the vehicles and the air conditioners were donated free to the state under an agreement between the state and Chinese governments in 2013.
“We requested for 200 units of agricultural trucks in addition to the air conditioners and the Chinese Government only approved 100 trucks. We made efforts for the shipment of the trucks to Nigeria but it proved abortive and then our tenure came to an end and we left.
“All the items were given to us free of charge and it was based on the personal relationship between Gov. Isa Yuguda and officials of the Chinese Government.
“We did not intended to either cart away or divert the items, especially that Yuguda had the interest of the state at heart.”
(NAN)
