Gombe State Governor Muhammadu Yahaya, on Friday, presented cars to 17 Commissioners, urging them to utilise the vehicles for purposes they were provided for.
It was reported that the official vehicles issued are new GAC GS4 cars.
The governor noted that the distribution of the cars was an allocation and not a donation, adding that it was geared towards ensuring they worked effectively and efficiently and reducing the cost of transportation.
Yahaya said,
“This is not a donation because it’s not for free. I want to seize this opportunity to allocate and issue these vehicles to our commissioners in order for them to use them; because of the prestige of the office, they need to go with the full complement of the office.
“It’s a tradition we have already done that to House of Assembly members so that they can participate in governance and carry out their oversight functions without any hitch.”
Yahaya harped on the need for commissioners to understand the economic situation globally, urging them to be prudent as the vehicles would be retrieved should they be used for unofficial purposes.
“Everyone knows that the trend around the whole world is inflation and depreciation of the value of the naira and so many things around the economy.
“There is a need to be prudent in whatever we do. Reduce cost of governance but yet perform as administrators, that is why Commissioners and entire Ministries, Departments and Agencies have vehicles to operate efficiently and effectively and it’s for those reasons that these vehicles are now allocated to ministries for commissioners to use.
“This time around, we must put extra care as it’s a public asset by making sure we handle them as we handle our own property. We have to show leadership by example; it’s when you lead that others follow, and you must lead from the front. I urge you to manage these vehicles properly by utilising them for the good of the people. If we see the vehicles engaged in anything extra we will retrieve them and take them back to the ministry because we have them on record. I want to urge you to utilise the vehicles well,” Yahaya added.
Responding Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of the state, Zubair Umar, lauded the effort of the governor, promising on behalf of his counterparts to utilise the cars for the purposes they were allotted.
He said,
“With this allocation made to us, we shall utilise them properly and carefully. We know that if we don’t manage we will spend more in maintaining them to last throughout our term and beyond.”