Distinguished Senator Muhammad Adamu Aliero was Governor of Kebbi State from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2007. He is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). He first became the Senator representing Kebbi Central District in the Senate of the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from June 5, 2007 till December 18, 2008, when he resigned to take up office as the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration. He left office in March 2010, when the then Acting President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved the cabinet he inherited from the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Senator Aliero returned to the Senate in 2015 and was reelected in 2019.

Before venturing into politics, this illustrious son of Kebbi State, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from the Ahmadu Bello University, had worked with the Nigeria Customs and Excise Service, where rose to the rank of Assistant Comptroller.

This reputable and highly respected gentleman, who has earned numerous deserving spurs in the course of his glorious and enviable public and private life, has, however, been the butt of traducers who, for political and selfish reasons, have subjected him to all sorts of malicious falsehoods, traducing and highly defamatory comments and narratives, especially as regards the politics of Zamfara State. For inexplicable reasons, there is a group of individuals in Zamfara State who would not hesitate in blaming the distinguished Senator for even the draught and stillbirths in that state. Some political upstarts in the state had even climbed to prominence on the ladder of scheming falsehoods against the Senator.

The traducers of the Senator are presently peddling and circulating the infernal lie that a company owned by the Senator is among the companies whose contracts with Zamfara State Government have been revoked by Bello Matawalle, the Governor of the State. According to the story as peddled in the media, Alliance Trading Company, alleged to have been awarded a contract of N25.992bn for the rural electrification of all of the 14 Local Government Areas of the State, is owned by the Senator. The further funny slant of the story is that even though the company was paid as much as N22.599 in 2013, it abandoned the job after 67% completion.

While one cannot at this moment hold brief for the said Alliance Trading Company Limited, one is bound to notice the irrationality and incongruity in the posture of the Governor who in one fell swoop has played the role of the accuser and the judge. By conjuring the name of Senator Aliero from all the possible names under the heavens, there must be a hidden narrative and slant that the Governor and his horsemen are suppressing under pain and anxiety. It cannot be out of mistake or inadvertence that the name of the Senator is imputed in the alleged transaction that Alliance Trading Company Ltd has with the Government of Zamfara State. While awaiting the unravelling of the mystery, one is put on notice that there is every likelihood that the said contract is allegedly wrongly and unlawfully revoked on the mistaken belief that the company is owned by the Senator, who from the slant and narrative is regarded as a political enemy who must be dealt with by the ill-advised revocation of the contract.

I am not in position to offer or proffer the Governor and his team of wise men legal advice about the legal, economic and socio-political implications of whimsical decisions, especially as they pertain to binding contracts. I however have the authorisation of the Distinguished Senator to warn against the continuation or repetition of the publication of the inglorious falsehood against him. It does not require any effort to look up the membership of a company at the Corporate Affairs Commission.

For the records and for the education of the Governor and his advisers, Senator Muhammad Adamu Aliero does not own Alliance Trading Company Limited and does not in any way whatsoever and howsoever involve in any of the company’s activities. As shown by the Governor, the company is a limited liability Company with a life of its own. If the company has done anything criminal or untoward, the Governor would be advised by his lawyers on how to deal with such scenarios. It is therefore uncalled for and unforgivable for the Governor and/or his advisers to conjure the name of the Senator in a manner as to give the impression that the serving Senator is carrying on business on the side and, worse still, that he has been paid humongous sums for jobs not done.

•Barrister Sam Karhbo, a lawyer and public affairs analyst, wrote this piece from Abuja.

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