Umar Must Respect Agreement Made with Suntai Taraba acting Governor Garba Umar A former Secretary to the Taraba State Government (SSG), Ambassador Emmanuel Njiwa, has urged the states acting Governor, Garba Umar, to keep faith with the pact made with Governor Danbaba Suntai ahead of next years polls. Njiwa, who spoke in Abuja, was reacting to Umars remarks that he (Umar) would contest the states governorship election next year if he is asked to run. But in a swift reaction, Njiwa said that Umars comment was a breach of an agreement previously reached with the recuperating Governor Suntai. I read Umars comments and I almost shed tears because I was there on more than four occasions when Umar told the governor that he only came to serve and finish the tenure with Suntai and not to run, he said. Njiwa further noted that Umar pledged his loyalty to Suntai at the said meetings. He was practically on his knees thanking Governor Suntai for the opportunity given to him. You know, he didnt even know he would be deputy governor in his life. The highest appointment he held before in the state was that of a board member of the Muslim Pilgrim Board. And he is not a resident of the state as he was born, raised and he lived all his life outside the state. But we needed to replace Sani Abubakar who we impeached. So I suggested to the governor that we should pick the replacement from the Wurkum people. Thats what we did. So when he came in, Umar was really filled with gratitude. There are talks that he was really having a serious financial crisis. Governor Suntai told him that he brought him in giving his age, because he was 68 at the time, he would not be too ambitious. The governor told him he has plans to ensure that power shifts to Southern Taraba. Umar said he had no problem with the issue seeing that he didnt even know he would get to that point in his life. Umar then dedicated himself to the issues and said he would work with Suntai to actualise all his dreams. Then the plane crash occurred and see what is now happening. If Suntai were here, would Umar be saying he would run? A former presidential hopeful, Njiwa noted that Suntai made a mistake in his choice of a deputy. I can now say that the greatest mistake we made in Taraba is having Umar. He came and balkanised our state. He has now divided Taraba along fault lines. On his personal crisis with Umar, Njiwa alleged: As soon as the governor had the crash, Umar came to me with a proposal of becoming his deputy. I rejected the offer. He then came again with the idea of me doing a memo that would kickstart the process of impeaching Suntai on incapacitation grounds. I also refused to do that. By law, it is my office that would do a memo to the Executive Council mandating the members to direct the state House of Assembly to constitute a medical panel. Umar wanted to desperately do that so that he would then get a report declaring Suntai incapacitated
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 15:59:04 +0000
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