Adamawa Lawmakers Move To Impeach Governor Murtala Nyako

Following the recent decision of members of the Adamawa State House of Assembly to defect from the All Progressives Party to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

The Plot by the members to impeach the governor thickens as the lobbying of lawmakers is said to be ongoing by powerful PDP governors who are spending huge sums to oust Nyako.

According to Nigeria’s Punch, a source said, “A huge sum of money has been set aside for the project, which enjoys the active support of the Presidency. You will recall that the defection was carried out in a manner that was novel in this country.

“The Speaker simply announced to his colleagues that they risked losing their seats if they announced any other party other than the PDP.

“The police was brought in and put on notice to march out any member who did not comply while INEC was put on standby to declare the seat of such members vacant. It was under such circumstances that each member said he was a member of the PDP.”

After the 2011 elections, the PDP had 20 out of the 25 seats in the state House of Assembly; the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria had four, while the defunct Congress for Progressive Change had one.

Two members of the ACN from Gombi and Wuba Gaya constituency respectively later defected to PDP. This increased the number of PDP seats to 22, ACN was left with two and the CPC retained its lone seat.

When the major opposition political parties merged to form the APC, only the two ACN members and the only CPC member of the House registered and obtained membership cards.

The remaining neither collected slips as APC members nor announced on the floor of the House that they had defected to APC.

However, a member of the House, Adamu Kamale dismissed the impeachment moves. Kamale, who spoke to our correspondent via the telephone from Yola, explained that the defection had not adversely affected the relationship between the legislature and the executive.

According to him, there is no other party in the Adamawa State House of Assembly other than the Peoples Democratic Party.

Kamale said, “Every member of the House is here to serve the interest of the people of his constituency; and to win your elections, you need your people.

“You cannot be an island, you go where your people want you to; they cannot go somewhere and you are somewhere else.”

Commenting on the impeachment threat, Kamale said “This is just the figment of the imagination of a few people. If we are going to do any such thing, it will not be a secret, people come to our gallery and watch our proceedings.

“From our deliberations so far, has anyone heard anything about impeachment? For now, we are not contemplating any impeachment but you know everything is in the hands of God, we cannot say what will happen in the future but for now, we have a good working relationship with the executive governor.

“Remember that we are not the only state where members of the House are in one party and the executive governor is in another party, Nasarawa state is one example.”

Attempts to get a response from the Adamawa State governor were unsuccessful, said PUNCH.

Several calls to the mobile phone of the Director, Press and Public Affairs to the governor, Ahmad Sajo, were neither picked nor returned. He also did not respond to a text message sent to him on the subject.

When his reaction was sought on the matter, the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Lai Mohammed, said he had nothing to say as at press time.