Nineteen out of 25 members of the Adamawa State House of Assembly yesterday endorsed a move to impeach Governor Murtala Nyako and his deputy Barrister Bala James Ngilari.
This is the first time in this political dispensation that a state assembly, will serve an impeachment notice on a governor and his deputy in line with section 188 of the 1999 Constitution (amended).
The latest move followed weeks of intense altercation between the executive and legislative arms of government which led to the invitation and even arrest of some commissioners who failed to honour the House’s invitation to answer charges of financial recklessness levelled against them.
But Nyako who spoke through his spokesman Mallam Ahmad Sajoh stated that he is not bothered about the move of the lawmakers to remove him.
He said, “It is God that gives power and He takes it back when He will. I’m not bothered about the impeachment notice. We have run a democratic system in Adamawa and we expect the House of Assembly to abide by the democratic process.
“As I am talking to you, the governor is yet to receive the notice of the impeachment even though we are aware that the assembly has passed the resolution.”
The move against the governor was the second such attempt against him in his seven years in power; there was a failed attempt by the James Barka-led House to impeach the governor in 2008.
The impeachment motion was moved by the member representing Numan Constituency and deputy speaker of the House, Barr. Kwamoti Laori, who said he was spurred by the height of the financial recklessness that had become the hallmark of Nyako’s government to move the motion.
The House then went on to slam a 20-count charge of gross financial misappropriation which it accused the government of Nyako of committing leading the state to incur losses running into billions of naira.
The charges that warranted the move ,according to the notice prepared against the governor and made available to LEADERSHIP, include:
• Fraudulent award of contract of over N8bn through SNECOU Group of Companies Limited, a company linked to one of the governor’s wives, to siphon public funds without delivering any services.
• Corrupt siphoning of N300m public funds through a company, Hydro Source Resources Ltd, in the name of construction of Mubi bye-pass road without mobilizing to site or any construction carried out after collecting N300m.
• Squandering N4, 805,216,538. 32 and N7,114,995,590.85in 2012 and 2013 respectively through the Office of the Secretary to the State Government against budgetary approval, and not in the interest of the people of Adamawa State.
The deputy governor was similarly not spared by the impeachment dagger dangled by the House of Assembly. He was also said to be neck-deep in financial recklessness.
While moving the motion for the impeachment of the deputy governor, Hon. Abdulkarim Umar, representing Narrasawo/Binyeri constituency, listed six grounds of financial misconduct.
He noted: “The deputy governor committed acts of gross misconduct in his performance of his duties by diversion of public funds to tune of N 50million released to the deputy governor, Adamawa State, by the Ministry of Finance via the instruction of the executive governor for acquiring licence for the exploration of sold minerals in the state.
“Diversion of over N400m out of the N500m Federal Government Intervention fund for flood victims in Adamawa State in 2011”.
Investigation by LEADERSHIP revealed that the deputy governor was being made a sacrificial lamb by the PDP as his retention as the deputy governor may scuttle the chances of impeaching Governor Nyako due to some vested interests.
The speaker of the House of Assembly on whose head the fate of the impeachment lies was said to be jittery of removing Nyako as Ngilari, his worst political arch-rival, would be the greatest beneficiary of the project. As such, the speaker was said to be paying lip service to the move which was allegedly being spearheaded by the presidency to teach Nyako a bitter political lesson for his criticism and opposition against the Presidency.
Signs which suggest that Ngilari may become the victim of circumstance started emanating when the Adamawa State PDP chairman stated that the gubernatorial seat of the party would be rotated to Adamawa Central, a move that was seen as the first step to deny Ngilari the chance of becoming the next governor as he was from Adamawa North.
Sources said efforts made by Ngilari to extricate himself from the difficult situation seemingly proved abortive as he was unable to get the listening ear of the presidency which was hell-bent on sacrificing him to achieve his goal of getting Nyako out of the way.
However, the impeachment move has flared tension in the state capital as thousands of people trooped to the streets to protest the impeachment move by the House of Assembly.
The protesters carried placards with inscriptions as “Adamawa House of Assembly, why impeachment now?”, “The House of Assembly wanted to truncate the fragile peace in the state”, “You just passed a vote of confidence on the governor and his administration; why the sudden change now?”
While reacting to the impeachment move, director of press and public affairs to Governor Nyako Mallam Ahmad Sajo said the governor was not aware of the move and that it remained in the realm of a wild speculation.
Source: Leadership
