The Magajin Garin Sokoto, Alhaji Hassan Ahmad Danbaba, has said the campaign of calumny and criminal defamation waged against his person by Sani Abdullahi Shinkafi, the governorship candidate of APGA in Zamfara state and his sponsors will fail.
The Sokoto kingmaker disclosed this in a
letter addressed to the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu.
The letter dated October 22, 2019, obtained by this newspaper, was signed by Auwalu Sani Salisu.
Last week, the Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, summoned Sani Abdullahi over the alleged criminal defamation against Magajin Garin Sokoto, in two petitions he wrote to EFCC.
Shinkafi, had on September 30, 2019, wrote an open letter claiming that Magajin Garin Sokoto had “converted into personal use” the Zamfara Halal Hotel Abuja.
He also accused the immediate past Governor of Zamfara state Abdulaziz Yari of “fraudulently” handing over the property to Alhaji Hassan Danbaba; and also claiming that the hotel had generated a net revenue of N950, 000,000 in eight years “without remitting a dime to the Zamfara state government.”
Magajin Garin Sokoto, however, said “from the letter and spirit of the petition, one doesn’t need a clairvoyant to tell him that the petitioner and his brainless backers are confused and ignorant of the subject matter in question – but as well bent in executing a hatchet job in the most destructive and desperate manner.”
Read the full letter below:
October 22, 2019
The Chairman
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
EFCC Corporate Headquarters
Jabi District
Abuja
SANI ABDULLAHI SHINKAFI’S DIRTY MUDSLINGING ON ALHAJI HASSAN AHMAD DANBABA (MAGAJIN GARIN SOKOTO) OVER LEASE OF ZAMFARA HALAL HOTEL, ABUJA
The attention of the management of Bina Consult Limited, promoters of Stonehedge Hotel Abuja, has been drawn to a petition authored by one Sani Abdullahi Shinkafi (Wamban Shinkafi), dated October 20, 2019, and addressed to your good office.
We are forced to write to your good office simply not to join issues with the petitioner, but to put the record straight. It is clear to any deciphering mind that the content of the petition is full of outright falsehoods and mudslinging targeted at the personality of our chairman, Alhaji Hassan Ahmad Danbaba (Magajin Garin Sokoto) for reasons based known to the writer and his faceless and spineless sponsors.
Mr Chairman, from the letter and spirit of the petition, one doesn’t need a clairvoyant to tell him that the petitioner and his brainless backers are confused and ignorant of the subject matter in question – but as well bent in executing a hatchet job in the most destructive and desperate manner.
In this petition, Shinkafi shamelessly recanted and withdrew almost all the falsehoods he advanced in his earlier petition addressed to your good office, dated September30, 2019 over the same matter.
In the first petition, Shinkafi claimed wrongly that the property in question was “converted into personal use” by Alhaji Hassan Ahmad Danbaba (Magajin Garin Sokoto); and that it was the immediate past former Governor of Zamfara State Abdulaziz Yari who “fraudulently” handed over the property to Magajin Gari’s Bina Consult.
Another Shinkafi’s illiterate lie was that Alhaji Hassan used the Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) of the property to obtain bank loans to refurbish the hotel. He also claimed that the “lease” was done without signing any papers. How outrageous!
But when the facts emerged, and Shinkafi realized that he goofed, he recanted all these allegations he mischievously leveled against our chairman.
But in his latest petition, Shinkafi now believes that the property was leased for 20 years to Bina Consult Limited (renewable for another five years); and that it was leased not by Governor Yari, as he earlier claimed, but by his predecessor, Governor Mahmuda Aliyu Shinkafi, among others.
The petitioner’s new song is that Bina Consult Limited, that renovated, refurbished and managing the hotel, is owing Zamfara state government about a billion naira and the EFCC should recover same from the company on behalf of Zamfara state government.
This new posture also earlier contradicted his earlier one where he accused Bina Consult Limited of “criminal conspiracy and forceful conversion of the property to personal use.” He now believes that the matter is not criminal but a civil matter.
Mr Chairman, from the tone of the two petitions, it is glaringly clear that Shinkafi doesn’t understand what Public Private Partnership (PPP) means.
In the second petition, the petitioner claimed that the Zamfara State Executive Council “approved the revocation of Halal Hotel but Alh. Abdulaziz Yari ignored it for personal gains against the interest of the state.” This is funny and it is clear that Shinkafi doesn’t know what executive powers of a state Governor are.
He also said that due process like “Tender and Advertisement for bidding to call for those in the industry to bid and takeover the management of the Hotel were never followed in line with the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Act 2005 (ICRC) and the National Policy on Public Private Partnership 2009.”
Shinkafi also goofed here. All these laws he mentioned are federal laws and not binding on states. Also, the petitioner forgot to state in his petitions that the property was first leased to NANET Hotels Limited before it was revoked and leased again to Bina Consult Limited. He didn’t state in his petitions where tender and bidding were advertised before NANET was granted the lease. It is clear that Shinkafi is only angry because the hotel was lease to our chairman who he despise so much for reasons only known to him and his coward sponsors.
His cowardice became apparent when the anti-corruption commission invited him to come forward and adopt his first petition having boasted on his first letter that he was ready to do it. Surprisingly, Shinkafi refused to come forward and adopt his petition, instead, he went ahead “adopted” it on social media platforms.
It was on record that Bina Consult Limited was granted the lease of the hotel, less than a week after it was revoked from NANET. Why did the state government revoked the lease from NANET? Why did the NANET deal with Zamfara state government collapse?
Mr Chairman, the following facts are expedient here: In May 2009, Nanet Hotels Limited wrote a proposal to Zamfara state government indicating its intention to manage the Zamfara Halal Hotel Abuja if the state government will carry out the “completion of equipping and managing” of the moribund and dilapidated facility.
On July 22, 2009, Zamfara state government approved the lease of the hotel to Nanet Hotels Limited.
On August 29, 2009, Nanet Hotels Limited wrote the state government saying the state government has not “upgraded, equipped and furnished” the hotel as agreed. And therefore, needs money to equip and furnish it before take-off.
In its response on October 6, 2009, the state government REVOKED the lease agreement with Nanet Hotels Limited, citing its failure to “upgrade, equip and furnish” the hotel.
The above clearly exposed Shinkafi’s wicked lie that the state government had spent N261 million on furnishing the hotel “at the inception of the agreement” with Bina Consult Limited.
Part of the agreement reached between the state and Bina Consult Limited, was that the company will spend “over N500 million” to upgrade and equip the hotel to international standard.
What Shinkafi also ignored to mention in his petitions is the fact the lease agreement further states that the company will be paying N155 million every five years (N31 million annually), but this must be after Bina Consult Limited “recouped its N500 million investment” used in upgrading, equipping and furnishing the hotel.
It was, however, on record that when Bina Consult took over the hotel, its engineers and quantity surveyors assessed the facility thoroughly and realized that the N500 million agreed was too small to execute the hotel upgrade, equipping and furnishing, which included almost changing everything save the walls and floors.
It was based on this development that on March 18, 2011, the company wrote the state government explaining this new development, where it attached a Bill of Quantities that contains details of the cost of the upgrade, equipping and furnishing, totalling N1.5 billion.
The the company, thereafter, went ahead with the renovations till 2015 when the hotel actually took-off.
Not only did the company renovated and upgraded the hotel but also built additional facilities such as the Umaru Shinkafi Hall and Ahmadu Bello Halls, among others.
It is imperative to state here that the management of Bina Consult Limited is not against the take over of the hotel by Zamfara state government if it so desires. However, that can only be done if the state government defrays all the cost incurred by our company in refurbishing and upgrading the property.
Accept the best assurances of our greatest esteem.
Sincerely,
For: Bina Consult Limited
Auwalu Sani Salisu
