Al-makura: No going back on impeachment bid – Lawmakers

By Ali Abare Abubakar

No fewer than 16 members of the Nasarawa state House of Assembly belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday affirmed their resolve to proceed with the impeachment proceedings against Governor Umaru Tanko Al-makura, despite protests across the state.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja yesterday, Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Security and Special Duties, Mohammed Baba Ibaku, said at no point did any member who signed the impeachment notice abandon the process, saying a media report purporting that some of the lawmakers have back out of the bid was “a lie”, baseless and misleading.

“We read (in) some papers that some of us have backed out of the impeachment process’ it is a lie. You can see the members that signed the impeachment notice are here. The members did not serve the impeachment notice on the governor just for arrangement, or to withdraw it later. No; there is no going back”, he stated.

The lawmaker openly asked his colleagues who surrounded him to confirm to newsmen if they had truly withdrawn their threat to impeach the governor, and they all chorused “No”.

Answering questions on the massive protest over their plot, Ibaku said the protesters were not citizens of the state, but were from neighbouring states that fell victims of Boko Haram attacks taking refuge in Nasarawa.

“The people you see on the streets of Nasarawa state are victims of Boko Haram attacks from Taraba state and some other states taking refuge in Nasarawa state, because if you watch closely, you can see wheelbarrow pushers among them. I don’t know what they got to do with the impeachment saga.

“There are things that happened in Nasarawa state, nobody demonstrated. Like the local government election, PDP won in all the local governments, except one. No demonstrations. The Emir of Lafia did not call some people to address them; he (Al-makura) took us to EFCC on our constituency allowance; that he gave us and nobody is using it, nobody protested. We appeared before EFCC. If you go by protest, our members, if we ask them to come out, there will be no road to pass.

“The issue is clear: allegations are labeled against the governor; are they not correct? Yes. The next thing for him to do is to go to where the panel will sit and answer the questions and defend himself. If he proved himself negative, he continues as the governor of Nasarawa state. Anything short of that, another person would be sworn in as the governor.

On the letter written to the House by the former governor of the state, Abdullahi Adamu, pleading with lawmakers to reconsider the impeachment bid against Al-makura,

Ibaku said: “I read a letter this morning and as a legislator, there is something he said; that what you are doing is constitutional. So if you are doing anything constitutional, then there is no going back on it.”