The political landscape of Adamawa State became tense on Thursday
amidst alleged plans to impeach the state governor, Murtala Nyako, and
moves by the House of Assembly to investigate the expenditures of the
state government.
In what could be seen as a step towards the impeachment process, the
Assembly on Thursday ordered the arrest of four commissioners for their
failure to appear before the lawmakers.
On Wednesday, the Assembly directed six commissioners, Secretary to the
State Government, and the Accountant General of the state to appear
before it over issues bordering on budget implementation.
The Thursday plenary presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Kwamoti
Laori (PDP-Numan) directed the state Commissioner of Police to arrest
four of the affected commissioners who failed to show up and bring them
before the house on Monday by 10 am.
The affected commissioners were that of agriculture, Lucy Ishaku;
health, Lilian Stephen; commerce, Ahmed Gorko; and land and survey,
Abdulrahman Shuaibu.
The Assembly, which acknowledged receipt of a letter from the
Secretary to the State Government, Kobis Thimnu, over his inability to
honour the Thursday invitation, asked him to appear unfailingly on
Monday.
The commissioner for Finance, Ibrahim Vokna, his counterpart for
Works, Umaru Atiku, and the state Accountant General, Nasir Mohammed,
had earlier appeared before the house.
On May 27, the Adamawa State House of Assembly gave Mr. Nyako and his
government an ultimatum of three days to pay back the illegal
deductions made from workers’ salaries and allowances of May 2014 in the
state.
This led to suspicions of an impeachment process against the governor
as the Assembly had hitherto appeared complacent in checking the
excesses of the executive.
“For instance, some teachers have worked for 22 months without
salaries, with some contracts issued and not executed, and so many
issues of governance that it was expected that the Assembly would act.
“But it was seemly quiet about these issues and the antecedent of the
leadership of the House has always indicated support for Governor
Murtala Nyako,” said Garba Musa, a political analyst in Yola, the state
capital.
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