The governor of Nasarawa State, Umaru Tanko
Al-Makura, on Tuesday, told the 20 lawmakers pushing for his removal in office
through impeachment procedure that no one could tamper with his mandate.
The governor, who promised to make himself
available before the seven-man probe panel to clear all the indictments, stated
this while receiving various groups, which paid him a visit during the
Eid-el-Fitri celebrations at the Governor’s Lodge, Lafia, the state capital.
He further told the sympathisers that the era
of sharing public funds among few individuals or looting state treasury had
gone finally in the state, saying his mandate went beyond the 20 lawmakers, who
were hell-bent on his removal from office, as it would be jealously guarded by
the people of the state.
Al-Makura lamented that all the allegations
levelled against him were frivolous and would not distract his administration’s
attention in forging ahead with its developmental stride and the provision of
social amenities that had direct advantage on the populace.
According to him, “I am happy with the way
and manner you protected your mandate. You have shown them that nobody can
tamper with your mandate. All what they have said about me is absolutely lie. I
will defend myself at appropriate time. I am accountable to you, not those 20
people. I will defend myself, and all my lawyers are ready to exonerate me.
“I want you to continue to live in peace and
harmony with one another. I want you, as well, to continue giving your adequate
supports to this administration, so that we will continue to give you all the
dividends of democracy,” he assured.
It will be recalled that the Speaker of the
state House of Assembly, Honourable Musa Ahmed, on Monday, July 14, directed
the clerk, Ego Maikeffi, after 20 out of 24 lawmakers signed impeachment
notice, to serve Al-Makura for gross misconduct, a situation which later
resulted to pockets of violent protests within and outside the state capital,
before the security operatives brought the situation under control.
Meanwhile, barring a last-minute change, the
seven-man probe panel set up to investigate the alleged gross misconduct of
Nasarawa State Governor, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, will begin sitting tomorrow,
Nigerian Tribune has learnt, the tentative venue of the sitting is the
conference room of the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftancy Affairs,
Lafia.
Nigerian Tribune also gathered that four
members of the panel are under pressure to throw in the towel, following the
discovery of their alleged membership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Their alleged party membership numbers of the
said members had reportedly been obtained by the majority members of the House
of Assembly elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The said lawmakers are currently in Abuja.
The alleged numbers from a source, the
request was turned down on the basis of not ready to release “our joker against
the panel when it begins sitting” the source explained.
The lawmakers have packaged a new set of
alleged corrupt acts for onward transmission to the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The move is reportedly targeted at surprising
the governor and make it impossible to tamper with the pieces of documentary
evidence needed to pursue the alleged misconduct needed to push the impeachment
through.
The governor has also promised to expose the
alleged official shady deals of the lawmakers when the panel begins sitting.
The alleged corrupt acts, according to
Nigerian Tribune source, would be used in pushing for the freezing of the bank
accounts of the state government by the anti-corruption commission.
The commission is also being reportedly
primed as a principal witness that may end up being subpoenaed by both the
governor and the lawmakers.
Both parties have been claiming of getting
each other investigated by the anti-corruption commission.
The fresh set of alleged corrupt acts of the
governor had not been submitted to the anti-corruption commission as at the
time of compiling this report.
Another issue being raised against the probe
panel is lack of auditing and accounting experience by all members, which the
petitioners felt would affect the outcome of the probe since figures and data
are involved in the allegations of fraud on both sides.
Tags
Politics