| Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa | |
|---|---|
| Governor of Sokoto State | |
| In office 29 May 1999 – 29 May 2007 |
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| Preceded by | Rufai Garba |
| Succeeded by | Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 October 1954 |
Alhaji Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa (born 4 October 1954) was governor of Sokoto State in Nigeria from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007.[1]
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He was a local government councillor in charge of Education. In 1979, he ran unsuccessfully for election to the House of Representatives on the platform of the Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP). He was a member of the National Constitutional Conference of 1994–1995, during the military rule of Sani Abacha. He was a founding member of the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP - 1997) and the All People's Party (APP - 1998).[2]
In 1999 he was elected governor of Sokoto State on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and was reelected for the ANPP in 2003.[2] In March 2002, a Sharia court in Sokoto State freed a 35-year old woman Safiya Hussaini, who had been sentenced to death by stoning after being found guilty of adultery. Nigeria's justice minister declared Sharia unconstitutional. Attahiru Bafarawa, however, said the Sharia states would not adhere to this declaration.[3]
Under the Bufarawa administration the state made significant improvements in the quality of roads. Schools were upgraded, and enrollment greatly improved due to assurances that all pupils would be taught morals and Islamic religion. The government built over 70 mosques. The water supply was improved through construction of boreholes.[4]
While he was governor, five separate petitions alleging abuse of office, money laundering and official corruption were written against him by individuals and corporate institutions.[5] In October 2006 a task force headed by Nuhu Ribadu of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) issued a report listing assets owned by 15 state governors that had not been declared on an official register as required by law. Gov. Bafarawa was accused of failing to declare a N200 million property in London which he acquired when he took office.[6]
Attahiru Bafarawa founded the Democratic People's Party (DPP) and became its presidential candidate at the 2007 presidential elections in Nigeria.[2] As presidential candidate, while meeting with officials of the US State Department in Washington, D.C., he promised to scrap the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) if elected, describing the commission as "a conduit of corruption and waste."[7]
Less than two months after Bafarawa left office, the state attorney-general forwarded a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) commission, asking for investigation of his actions in office. The EFCC questioned Bafarawa, and took his passport. In July 2008, the EFCC asked a Federal High Court in Abuja not to release his passport, which he had requested for travel to receive medical treatment.[5]
In October 2009, there was an attack on a convoy of Attahiru Bafarawa and DPP governorship candidate, Alhaji Maigari Dingyadi, at the Sultan Muhammadu Maccido Institute for Islamic Studies in Sokoto. Dingyadi alleged that the attackers were leaders of area boys of the People's Democratic Party, and said they may have been trying to assassinate him.[8] That month the Sokoto State Commissioner of Justice said that the state was about to prosecute Attahiru Bafarawa and five others for alleged misappropriation of N2.919 billion. Bafarawa said the Sokoto commission of inquiry had been set up by the present Governor Aliyu Wamakko solely in order to discredit him.[9] In December 2009 EFCC officials raided a meeting and arrested Bafarawa, accusing him of involvement in a 6bn naira ($40m) fraud from his time as governor of Sokoto State.[10]
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