Constituents of the member representing Biu/Bayo/Kwaya/Kusar/Shani Federal Constituency of Borno State, Hon Muktar Betara Aliyu, have donated a total of sum of N110 million for his reelection bid.
Out of the sum they purchased the expression of interest and nomination forms of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for N10 million for the lawmaker on Thursday.
Hon. Aliyu who was elected into the House of Representatives in 2007, served as the Chairman, House Committee on Army in the 7th Assembly; Chairman, House Committee on Defence in the 8th Assembly, and currently Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations.
According to the leader of the Borno community who obtained the forms at the International Conference Centre (ICC) in Abuja, Alhaji Adamu Shettima Yuguda, the money was contributed by the entire members of the communities the lawmaker represents.
Yuguda, a former Deputy Governor of Borno State,“I am one of the delegation that came to pick the form for our own representative member, Hon. Muktar Betara Aliyu, who is in the holy land. As a community we are here to pick the form for him, so we are a delegation of millions of people.
“We want him back because of his history and his antecedents. He has done a lot and our people of course donated. He’s not even aware that we are here today. We came here to pick the form on his behalf and so this is just for picking the form. The grand finale for the presentation to him will be done in the local government.
“The community sent us. They contributed from N20 up to N10 million and so we had the money paid to pick the form and hand it over to him. Our people want him back. He has done a lot. If I begin to point them out I won’t finish till tomorrow.
“Hon. Betara Aliyu has embarked on a series of empowerment and human capital development programmes, road construction and infrastructure in general. He enjoys massive support from his constituency. As we speak he has no opposition up till now. There is nobody picking the form apart from him.”
Media Consultant to the Campaign Organisation, Hajia Aisha Ibrahim, described Hon. Aliyu as a generous and humble man, who has the interest of the people of his constituency at heart.
“Most of the empowerment programmes he has carried out in his constituency so far have been that of the women and the youth and I cannot begin to recount them now. In fact, recently he did it in all the headquarters of his constituency. One of the things he’s planning is to build an empowerment centre for women who will get trained in different skills. The support from the group is massive,” she said.
A supporter, Alhaji Mustapha Mohammed also said, “I think he has the right to aspire to any position in this country. So we are in support of him attaining the position of the Speaker in the House of Representatives because he has the experience and he has the capacity and he has demonstrated it. His colleagues can testify to that, so we are behind him to attain any position of authority in this country.”
On the relationship between Governor Babagana Zulum and Hon. Betara Aliyu, he affirmed that the relationship between them is very cordial.
Alhaji Mohammed who coordinated the collection of the donations from the indigenes, said, “I coordinated the collection. You can see as little as N20 towards this assignment, so it shows that the grassroot people are in full support of him coming back as a representative in the National Assembly.”