Ex-Governor Nyako blames drug abuse, thuggery on govt. lack of empowerment programmes

Murtala Nyako

Former Adamawa State governor, Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako (retd), has blamed drug abuse and thuggery by youths across the state on government, stressing that lack of empowerment programmes by the government of the day is the cause of the twin evils.

He therefore charged the electorate to vote for credible candidates in 2019, especially for those who would empower them.

Murtala Nyako spoke in Ganye, headquarters of the Ganye Local Government Area Thursday at the beginning of a state-wide tour that took him and his long convoy also to Toungo and Jada local government areas in the southern zone of the state where he said his visit was to thank the people for their support to his administration.

Nyako, who governed Adamawa State between 2007 and 2014, reiterated at the palace of Gangwari Ganye that the people owed it as a duty to vote into power, credible candidates who would bring people-oriented empowerment for job creation. “We must also vote for a government that would provide quality education to our children in the state,” he said.

Speaking earlier, the paramount ruler of the Ganye Kingdom, Gangwari Ganye, Alhaji Umar Adamu Sanda said Adamawa people would always tap from the wealth of experience of the former governor in view of positions he held in the past. “The state is fortunate to have you as son of the soil. Your records and wealth of experience will serve as catalogue for reference to all,” the Ganye traditional ruler said.

Nyako, who hails from Mayo Belwa, another LGA in southern Adamawa, was in the Nigerian Navy for 30 years, rising to the rank of a vice admiral and becoming the military governor of Niger State from February 1976 to December 1977 and then as Chief of Naval Staff from 1990 to 1992.

Nyako interacted with political stakeholders and his supporters, who thronged out to receive him in each of the towns he visted, discussing politics with them and encouraging them to hope for a better future.

Although Murtala Nyako is a big name in the All Progressives Congress (APC), his son, Sen Abdulazeez Nyako, left the APC to become the African Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship candidate for the 2019 election in the state.