By Kolawole Ojebisi
Governor Umar Namadi of Jigawa State has said his administration frowns at misconducts and doesn’t take them with levity.
The governor said this following an allegation levelled against his Commissioner for Special Duties, Auwal Sankara.
Sankara, on Friday, was reportedly arrested by the Kano State Hisbah board at an uncompleted building where he was purportedly having an illicit affair with a married woman.
The Hisbah board, seen as moral police in the Northern region, claimed it trailed Sankara to the venue of the alleged illicit affair and arrested him.
Reacting to the allegation in a statement, the commissioner dismissed it as “false, malicious and baseless.”
Sankara vowed to take legal action against those behind the allegations, adding that their aim was to damage his reputation.
However, the Jigawa governor, said he would take any of Sankara’s words for it under there’s a dispassionate investigation into the matter.
The governor, therefore, ordered the immediate suspension of the commissioner pending the outcome of the investigation.
The governor’s order is contained In a statement issued by the Secretary to the State Government, Bala Ibrahim on Saturday.
“The suspension is a precautionary measure intended to facilitate a fair investigation,” Ibrahim said.
“We take all allegations seriously and are dedicated to upholding the trust of Jigawa citizens in the government.”
In another statement, the state government announced that it has constituted a five-member committee to investigate the allegations against the commissioner.
According to the statement the committee is to be chaired by the secretary to the Jigawa state government.
Other members are Sagir Ahmed, commissioner for information; Lawal Danzomo, commissioner for basic education; Usman Jahun, special adviser on security matters; and Adamu Garin, private secretary to the governor.
The committee is to submit its report in two weeks time.
The state government said the allegations led to “significant embarrassment and degradation to the reputation” of the state government.
