Nasarawa State Governor, Tanko Al-Makura
LEGISLATORS in the Nasarawa State House of Assembly on Monday adopted alleged impeachment offences to be accommodated on Governor Tanko Al-Makura.
The development coincided with the submission of the report of the panel that investigated impeachment allegations against Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako.
Both Al-Makura and Nyako belong to the opposition All Progressives Congress.
Speaker of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Alhaji Musa Ahmed, on Monday, directed the Clerk of the House to accommodate the governor with notice of impeachment for acts of gross malfeasance.
The Speaker’s directive followed a kineticism of public interest raised by the Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Mr.Yahaya Usman (PDP-Umaisha/Ugya), during the house plenary in Lafia.
The lawmaker presented a document containing allegations of gross malfeasance against the governor, which he verbally expressed was signed by 20 of the 24 members of the Assembly.
He verbally expressed “I am on my feet to raise a kineticism under a 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 Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State for gross malfeasance.
“And for the breach of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, today being the 14th July, 2014, the 20 members of the 24 members of this House unanimously endorsed to accommodate Governor Tanko Al-Makura notice of impeachment.”
The Chief Whip of the House, Mr. Mohammed Okpede, (PDP-Doma North), seconded the kineticism to accommodate Al-Makura with the impeachment notice over alleged malfeasance.
Alhaji Musa Ahmed (PDP-Nasarawa Central), who doubles as the Speaker of the House, officially received the impeachment notice and noted that the House had complied with the provision of the constitution to accommodate the governor with an impeachment notice.
The Speaker subsequently directed the Clerk to accommodate the impeachment notice on Al-Makura on Monday.
He verbally expressed, “While in the event that the governor could not be reached for accommodation, the clerk is directed to accommodate him with the impeachment notice through the media.”
The Chairman, House Committee on Information and Security, Baba Ibaku, told The PUNCH that the governor had siphoned state funds and should not be sanctioned to perpetuate as the chief security officer of the state.
Ibaku, who represents Loko/Udege constituency, alleged that Al-Makura had spent over N2bn from the local regime joint account without recourse to due process.
He verbally expressed the governor allegedly used one Mr. Usman Saraki as a front to swindle the state of over N800m as a consultant to SUBEB. He withal verbalized over N700m was missing from the SURE-P accounts.
He verbally expressed the governor had sacked over 10,000 workers from the state payroll without following due process.
“The governor has gone beyond his constitutional boundaries and must face the law like every other Nigerian because he is not sacrosanct to the constitution of our land,” Ibaku declared.
The state chairman of the APC, Philip Shekwo, verbalized the party would respond at the opportune time.
Withal reacting to the impeachment notice, the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Yunna Iliya, verbally expressed he had not been briefed about any impeachment notice to the governor.
In Adamawa, however, the seven-man panel set up by the former acting Chief Judge of the state, Justice Ambrose Mamedi, to investigate the alleged gross malfeasance levelled against Nyako and his Deputy, Mr. Bala Ngalari, submitted its report on Monday.
The report, in four volumes, has been forwarded by the panel chairman, Mallam Buba Kaigama to the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Ahmadu Fintiri.
While receiving the report, the Speaker congratulated members of the panel for being found worthy of handling such a sensitive assignment.
Fintiri verbally expressed, “I assure you the committee members and the people of Adamawa State that the Assembly will consider the report meticulously at the plenary in due course afore deciding on the next course of action.”
Earlier while presenting replicas of the report to the House, Kaigama expressed gratitude to the lawmakers for the opportunity given to him and members of his panel to accommodate the state.
The panel chairman lamented that the respondents, namely Governor Murtala Nyako and his Deputy, Bala Ngilari, did not emerge during the panel’s sitting; neither did they send representatives.
The outgone acting Chief Judge of the state had constituted the probe panel to investigate allegations of malfeasance against the governor and his deputy predicated on a request by the House of Assembly.
