Governor Ishaku returns to Taraba after 87 days in Abuja

The Taraba State Governor, Darius Ishaku, on Thursday returned to the state after spending 87 days in Abuja.

Ishaku, who arrived at Jalingo on a charted flight, touched down at the Danbaba Suntai Airport around 4pm.

The governor immediately announced a ban on hand shake in the state to check the spread of coronavirus.

He enjoined the people of the state to promote personal hygiene and practice handwashing using soap and sanitisers to check the spread of the dreaded virus.

“For now, people should avoid handshakes and imbibe the culture of personal hygiene as recommended by the World Health Organisation.

“We don’t have test kits available here in the state and we must prioritise personal hygiene to avoid the virus.

“People should avoid travelling to places where cases of the virus have been confirmed. Business transactions and conversations with people in such places can be done online,” he said.

Ishaku told journalists that he was involved in domestic accident and he underwent a surgery during his long stay away from the state.

According to him, he has yet to fully recover from the accident, adding that he is following his doctors advice.

He thanked the people of the state for keeping faith with him while he was away, noting that “contrary to media report in some quarters, governance in Taraba did not suffer while I was away.

“Road projects are going on and the act of governance generally is going on smoothly,” he said.

Ishaku left the state on December 22, 2019 after presenting the 2020 budget to the state House of Assembly.

The long stay of Ishaku from the state generated controversy between the opposition All Progressive Congress and the ruling People’s Democratic Party.

The state Chairman of the APC, Ibrahim El-Sudi, had called on the governor to transmit power to his deputy, Haruna Manu or risk impeachment.

But the PDP leadership in the state had consistently maintained that the governor did nothing wrong to warrant impeachment and accused the APC of overheating the polity.