Adamawa State lawmakers yesterday received the report of the investigative panel instituted to probe Governor Murtala Nyako, just as their colleagues in Nasarawa State also moved against the governor, Alhaji Tanko Al-Makura: he was served an impeachment notice.
Both governors belong to Nigeria’s main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The national leadership of the party has condemned the latest move in Nasarawa State.
But Governor Al-Makura seems unperturbed. He alleged that the lawmakers were financially induced to embark on the impeachment. He fingered the Presidency and a serving minister as the masterminds of the plot to unseat him.
Speaker of the Nasarawa State Assembly Alhaji Musa Ahmed Mohammed yesterday directed the clerk to serve Governor Al-Makura an impeachment notice following a motion of public interest raised by the deputy majority leader of the House, Mr Yahaya Usman (PDP, Umaisha/Ugya), during plenary in Lafia.
Usman had presented a document before the Assembly cataloguing allegations of gross misconduct against the governor, which he said was signed by 20 of the 24 members of the Assembly.
“I am on my feet to raise a motion under the matter of public interest and I will go direct to read the document I have in my hand: this is a notice of impeachment of Gov. Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State for gross misconduct and for the violation of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, today being the 14th July, 2014.
“Twenty members out of the 24 members of this House unanimously endorsed to serve Governor Tanko Al-Makura notice of impeachment.”
Of the 24 state assembly members, only four belong to the ruling APC, in the state while 20 are of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Alhaji Musa Ahmed Mohammed (PDP, Nasarawa Central), the speaker of the House, who officially received the impeachment notice, said it had complied with the provisions of the 1999 constitution (as amended).
The speaker subsequently directed the clerk of the House, Ego Maikeffi, to serve the impeachment notice on Governor Al-Makura immediately.
He said, “In the event that Governor Tanko Al-Makura cannot be reached for service, the clerk is directed to serve him with the impeachment notice through the media.”
LEADERSHIP had in its July 3, 2014, edition reported that 20 state lawmakers had, at a secret meeting held at a guest house in highbrow Asokoro District, Abuja, concluded plans to remove the governor.
Commenting on the notice, Governor Al-Makura’s special adviser on special duties, Mr Mohammed Abdullahi, accused some unseen hands in the Presidency of being behind the impeachment notice.
He alleged that proxies which include a serving minister from Nasarawa State, some lawmakers in the National Assembly and a points-man from the south- south who is currently serving in the National Conference are the arrowheads of the plot to unseat the governor.
Abdullahi accused those behind the scenes of selling the impeachment dummy to the Presidency for the PDP to reclaim the governorship of the state while the south-south politician allegedly disbursed N30 million each to the 20 lawmakers as inducement.
The special assistant said the bribe was given to the lawmakers in US Dollars on Sunday and had the support of the deputy governor, Damishi Luka, whom he (Abdulahi) accused of a longstanding ambition to become the state governor with Speaker Mohammed as deputy.
The deputy governor, less than a year ago, defected from the APC to PDP, a move that was viewed by many as signalling a frosty relationship between him and Governor Al-Makura.
Similarly, an elder statesman from the state, Alhaji Abdullahi Bako, while commenting on the development, expressed disgust on the matter, saying interference in the state affairs by the Presidency is uncalled for and saddening.
Incidentally, the impeachment notice comes on a day President Goodluck Jonathan commissioned the largest rice farm in Africa situated in Doma, Nasarawa State.
No shaking – Al-Makura
But Al-Makura’s mien shows a man without worry. He said he would not fret over the move by the lawmakers to impeach him. He said he did not commit any constitutional infraction to warrant such move against him.
The governor, who spoke through his commissioner for information, Hon. Hamza Elayo, said: “The governor is not bothered about this latest move. He is not shaking because he has not breached the 1999 Constitution (as amended). “We are yet to receive any notice and, until we get it, we react appropriately.
Please note that the governor is serving the state to the satisfaction of the people and there is no cause for alarm,” he said.
PDP destablising APC-controlled states – Oyegun
Meanwhile, the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday said the display of power of impunity against governments and governors of states controlled by their members is a clear indication that the federal government on the watch of President Goodluck Jonathan could breed dire consequences.
The national chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie Oyegun, stated this in Benin City, the Edo State capital, when he led a high-powered delegation of leaders and members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party on a solidarity visit to Governor Adams Oshiomhole at the Government House over the lingering crisis in the state House of Assembly.
Oyegun noted that, with the unstable political scenarios in Rivers, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Kano and now Edo State, it was clear to the opposition party that the forces of the federal government and the PDP were out to destabilize the APC with “a properly mapped out war against the APC and to destabilize” it. He stated: “What is going on and what the party has come to realize is that there is a properly mapped out war against the APC, to destabilize the APC. While you are going through your travails here, we are also trying to contain the fires that have been emitting in Adamawa; we are preparing for the one they are promising in Nasarawa State and so on and so forth and the bombs have started exploding in Kano.”
He assured Oshiomhole that the party is solidly behind him and the 15 APC lawmakers in the legislative arm of government in the state over the failure of the PDP legislators to obey various court orders and the use of security agencies as against their constitutional roles of protection of life and property but have reduced themselves to a willing tool in the hands of the powers that be at the Aso Rock in Abuja.
They cited what it called the political “travails” being orchestrated against the governors of Rivers, Edo and three others in the northern part of the country where the APC is holding sway in the government and governance.
“Against all odds you have stood firm and we want to thank you that this is the new spirit of the new APC, for the simple reason that you are not alone in the most current attack and destabilization of APC governments and governors. Before you is, of course, the imitable Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State whose travails are still far from being over, but I am glad and surprised today when he said that he was just from a security council meeting.” Oshiomhole in his remarks said he would not be distracted by the activities of the PDP lawmakers and the national leadership of the party.
While thanking the party leaders for their sense of commitment and visit to the state, he said by the action of the embattled PDP lawmakers they were out to procure 13 out of the 24 members in the House to block every executive bill, frustrate the 2015 budget and equally put a stop to the developmental initiatives of government in the state.
“Because the PDP is so frightened by our record of achievements and the fact that every day they lament that my crime is that whereas people knew that this state was grossly mismanaged they were unable to put scale on the level of mismanagement, but each time they see the six-lane roads across Benin; the huge urban renewal programme we sustained, the massive development, health centres, free education up to secondary school level, free bus services for pupils, whether they are private or public schools; people can now imagine how much they have lost in 10 years.”
He maintained that as long as this generation of Edo people is alive the PDP has no hope in Edo State, stressing that all they are doing is simply designed to destabilize the state. The governor decried that the PDP legislators were the ones that are in contempt of the courts after they have collected about N75million to defect from the APC to the PDP and to prosecute their evil plot against the state and the people.
Among the delegation on the solidarity visit were Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Abia State Chief Ogbonnaya Onu, ex-governor of Kwara State Senator Bukola Saraki, minority leader of the House of Representatives Hon. Femi Gbajamila, former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, and APC national publicity secretary Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
Uncertainty looms over Nyako as House convenes emergency sitting today.
Uncertainty has pervaded the Adamawa landscape as the state House of Assembly convenes an emergency meeting today, even as the seven-man panel submitted its report before the speaker of the House, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.
Many in the state are afraid that the impeachment card may be in the offing for both Governor Murtala Nyako and his deputy Bala James Ngilari who might have been indicted by the reports following their failure to honour the invitation extended to them by the seven- man panel.
In a telephone chat, the chairman, House Committee on Information, Hon. Adamu Kamale, told LEADERSHIP correspondent that the House had announced the convoking of an emergency meeting although he could not disclose what the meeting was all about.
The panel conducted a two-day sitting on Friday and Saturday following which it submitted its report before the speaker of the House of Assembly at the State Assembly complex in Yobe.
However, the seven-man panel constituted by the former acting chief judge of the state, Mammadi, finally submitted its report to the speaker on Monday.
The seven-man panel, which stormed the state House of Assembly Complex at exactly 2:20pm, came amidst impregnable security provided by stern-looking soldiers who were wielding AK-47 assault rifles.
While presenting the report, the chairman of the seven-man committee, Mallam Buba Kaigama, said the committee has discharged its mandate and has compiled a comprehensive report following the sittings of the panel.
He said both the governor and his deputy were given the opportunity to respond to the allegations of gross misconduct against them in line with the mandate of the committee but they blatantly refused to use the opportunity to grace the panel’s sittings in order to give their own account.
“The panel is submitting its report in accordance with section 188 subsection 5 of the constitution. Despite the initial hitches, we were able to conduct our sittings and both the governor and his deputy were given the opportunity to respond which they refused,” Kaigama said, adding that the panel has admitted six exhibits on allegations against the deputy governor while it admitted 24 exhibits on allegations against the governor. He said that the panel preferred its report in four volumes which include letter of appointment of members, proceedings of the panel, exhibits tendered during the proceedings and report of the panel.
He added that there was nothing hasty in the way the panel conducted its proceedings, saying that it sat for two days where the complainant (the House of Assembly) attended and gave its evidence but the two respondents refused to attend the sittings and hence the submission of the committee’s report.
Kaigama however refused to disclose the outcome of the investigation, saying “we have submitted the report to the right channel; you can go to them”.
On the issue surrounding the legality of the substituted service of notice of appearance on the governor and his deputy, the chairman said the panel did not default as it has followed the procedures given to it which stipulates pasting the notices of appearance at the premises of the governor and his deputy.
“We pasted it according to the law but we don’t have judicial powers to arrest them but we use alternative service. I am not a judge but I have followed the procedures given to me.”
During his speech on the occasion, the speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly thanked the panel for a job well done. The speaker assured the panel that its report would be used judiciously in the interest of the state and democracy, saying that the House would consider the report at the appropriate time during its plenary session.
However, the speaker of the State House of Assembly stormed out of the premises immediately after receiving the report.
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