#NEWS Impeachment: APC, Atiku move to save Nyako …as trial panel sits tomorrow •Adamawa’s accounts remain frozen •APC govs mop up funds to rescue colleague •Impeachment panel sits tomorrow •APC govs contribute money for embattled gov Efforts by political leaders, traditional institutions and well- meaning Nigerians to save Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State and his deputy, Mr. Bala James Ngilari, from impeachment may have achieved no positive result, as the 20 members of the state House of Assembly who signed the impeachment notice have refused to buck under intense pressure. Leading the pack of pressure is the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; the chairman of the All Progressives Party in the state, Binta Garba; APC national leadership led by its chairman, John Odigie Oyegun, APC governors led by Owelle Rochas Okorocha and Northern Nigeria Governors forum (NNGF) led by Dr. Babangida Aliyu, among others. At the last meeting held in Abuja on Thursday at the Asokoro residence of Atiku, which was attended by most of the personalities, the fate of the governor was discussed and blames were laid at the doorsteps of Nyako for allowing his relationship with key political figures caucus to degenerate so terribly, prior to this incidence. According to a source who witnessed the meeting, the former Vice President had accused Nyako of introducing a dangerous politics of insisting on controlling the entire structure of the People’s Democratic Party and producing all electoral positions in the state, leaving none to other major players. “Had the governor allowed other stakeholders to have a say in who becomes what in the state, perhaps, the situation would not be this bad. Now, since Atiku was not part of producing the lawmakers, it is now difficult to wade into the crisis because none of them is loyal to him. Though, he was able to reach the lawmakers, it seems they have made up their mind to push the governor out of government,” said the source. In a chance meet with one of the APC governors who also confirmed the meeting on Thursday, he confirmed that denying the governor access to the state treasury has even made the matter worse as the governor now lacks the financial power to fight his way through the crisis. The governor said, “It has even got to a stage where some of his colleagues in the party are pooling resources together to assist the governor. I can tell you that the governor does not even have as much as N5 million to himself and what do you expect the governor to do particularly in the face of massive financial backup the lawmakers are getting from the PDP government? “We know that the impeachment plot against Nyako is a declared war by the PDP government to deplete our strength ahead of the coming election, but we are resolute to halt the assault and use every legal means not only to halt the assault on Nyako but also on any other APC state.” Another source said, “Governors Aliyu Wammakko and Rabiu Kwankwaso and some eminent northerners have also waded into the impeachment saga. “They are seeking to prevail on the lawmakers to have a rethink. “These governors have been meeting all day with some of the lawmakers in Abuja to see how to avert the plot.” Similarly, the Chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum and Imo governor, Okorocha, urged the House of Assembly to drop the motion while asking the Presidency to intervene in the matter. He explained that in the course of current security challenges Nigeria faces, it was inappropriate for anybody to touch upon the impeachment issue. The Forum chairman stressed the fact that such a move could aggravate the tension in Adamawa and urged the state’s stakeholders to prevent such a situation for the sake of peace in the country. Instead, he advised the politicians and lawmakers to throw the effort currently spent on impeachment proceedings on the more important issue, which is the rescue of abducted Chibok girls. Okorocha said it would be surprising for the world to know that amid the security problems, all Nigeria is discussing is impeachment. Meanwhile, embattled Governor Nyako said on Friday that Jonathan does not have a hand in the impeachment move against him, even as he laid the blame on some “Abuja-based politicians.” But, the President, Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, Comrade Shehu Sani, has described the impeachment plot against Nyako as a political vendetta. Sani, who made his position known in a statement, accused the PDP of sponsoring the plot. He said the impeachment notice is “nothing other than a scripted exercise by the ruling PDP to punish and persecute Governor Nyako for his principled stand to defect to the APC. The impeachment plot is a facade by the PDP and the Federal Government to retake the state.” Sunday Mirror gathered that the impeachment plot against the governor and his deputy could be achieved within the coming week, now that the legal hurdles have been successfully surmounted. The state’s acting chief judge, Justice Ambrose Mammadi, on Friday finally set up a panel of seven persons to investigate the allegations of misconduct and corruption against Nyako by the state’s lawmakers. The panel will be inaugurated on Monday and will commence sitting immediately. According to Section 188 of the 1999 constitution, the panel has three months to investigate the allegations, during which Nyako, who defected to the APC last year, will be allowed to defend himself. Sunday Mirror also gathered that the whole process is to fulfil all righteousness as the constitution also guarantees that the whole exercise could also last within 24 hours but not more than 90 days. “The constitution only gave a limit of three months. The panel does not have to sit for three months,” says a constitutional lawyer. The deputy governor, Mr. Bala James Ngilari, is also expected to be impeached along with Nyako, even though he remained in the PDP after Nyako’s defection and is believed to be close to President Goodluck Jonathan. If both are impeached, the speaker of the House of Assembly, Alhaji Ahmadu Fintiri, will be acting governor for a period of three months during which a fresh governorship election will be conducted. Nyako’s ardent critics and governorship aspirant on the platform of the PDP 2011 in Adamawa State, Dr. Umar Ardsatraps told Sunday Mirror that the impeachment notice passed on Governor Nyako and his deputy, Ngilari, is a vindication of his earlier stand that the duo was not capable of delivering the state from doldrums of underdevelopment. Ardo who challenged Nyako’s victory in the courts said, “I support their impeachment because they ought not to have even been in office as far back as July 2008 when the first impeachment notice was served the governor”. He said his objection to the party’s directive that all PDP governors be returned unopposed in 2011, including Nyako, for their support for the President was because of his conviction that as far as Adamawa State was concerned, it was a wrong decision. “I argued then that the party should treat candidates on their individual merits and peculiarities and that Nyako will turn out to be a liability both to the state and the party,” he said. He stated that he made the point in several party forums, including one before the party stakeholders, where the President, Vice President, the party national chairman, NWC members, Nyako himself, were all present. He regretted that the powerthat- be then brushed his arguments aside and went ahead to give their support to the Nyako- Ngilari ticket. Dr. Ardo asserted that Nyako- Ngilari’s administration deserved to be impeached because it destroyed Adamawa State for seven years that they have been in power. “For the over seven years of its being in power, it brought the state to its knees, economically, politically, infrastructurally and security-wise,” he stated. Ardo said Nyako and Ngilari were unlawfully nominated by the party, and should be impeached while the Speaker should take over as an acting governor and elections conducted within three months. The development, he said, would put Adamawa on a clean slate so that it would rise again and charged members of the Adamawa State House of Assembly not to relapse again and disappoint the Adamawa citizenry as done in 2008. In this democratic dispensation, five governors have been impeached: Joshua Dariye (Plateau), Rashidi Ladoja (Oyo), DSP Alamieyeseigha (Bayelsa), Ayo Fayose (Ekiti) and Peter Obi (Anambra).
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 12:58:32 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015