The
Nasarawa
State
House of
Assembly
has said
that it
will go
ahead and impeach Governor Tanko Al-Makura.
The Chairman of the House Committee on
Information and Security, Baba Ibaku, who
stated this in an interview with our
correspondent in Lafia on Wednesday, said that
there was no going back on the impeachment
move against the governor.
He said the panel set up by the Chief Judge,
Justice Umaru Dikko, to investigate the 16
counts against the governor, breached Section
188 Subsection (5) of the 1999 Constitution of
Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.
He, therefore, described the sitting of the
panel as illegal.
Ibaku said that the lawmakers did not know
whether there was any sitting of the panel on
Tuesday or not.
The lawmaker stated, “As far as we are
concerned, there is no seven-man panel that is
investigating Governor Al-Makura, because we
had earlier asked the state chief judge to
disband the panel.
“We sent our legal team to appear before the
panel yesterday (Tuesday) and we instructed
them to simply tell the Chairman of the panel,
Yusuf Usman, that we (the lawmakers) only
appeared through our legal team to register our
protest against the composition of the panel
because the members of the panel are political
office holders,” he stated.
He said, “We will go-ahead with our moves to
impeach Governor Al-Makura and nothing will
stop us to step down on our plans, no matter
what it entails. We are going to file a case
before the law court as soon as we finish our
deliberation,”
“We will always sit in any part of the state to
pass another resolution,”
On its part, the governor lauded the decision of
the judicial panel.
Al-Makura, who gave the commendation in an
interview with journalists in Lafia, described the
outcome of the panel as a victory for democracy.
The governor said, “My victory is for the rule of
law. I am sure the people of goodwill and the
people of Nasarawa State, even without coming
to the tribunal, know who the governor is and
what he could do and what he can or not do. My
vindication is for the good people of Nasarawa
State.”
While dedicating the victory to the people of the
state, he urged them to be on the right part of
the law. He also commended the role played by
the team of his legal experts.
But the Legal Adviser to the outlawed Ombatse
Militia Group, Zachariah Allumaga, condemned
the seven-man panel for dismissing the
allegations against the governor.
According to him, Al-Makura has been using the
instruments of state powers to the disservice of
the people.
He said, “The governor has always, since his
assumption of office, been the judge in his own
case,” adding that the people of the state would
oppose such moves by the governor.
Allumaga, who spoke in an interview with The
PUNCH in Lafia, argued further that the state
lawmakers were on course. However, he said
they should go ahead with their actions in the
spirit of the constitution.
He called on members of the state House of
Assembly not to derail, adding that what
happened at the panel was a child’s play.
The legal adviser of the Ombatse cult group
faulted the state chief judge, whom he said had
made himself to be used by a drowning governor.
Allumaga, who is also a former Magistrate in the
state, said that Dikko has done a great havoc to
Section 188 of the Constitution. He urged the
state House of Assembly and the Nigerian
Judicial Council to sanction him.
According to him, the CJ constituted a panel that
had the governor’s cronies, card-carrying party
members and government appointees
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