Despite Panel's Exoneration,We ll Go Ahead To Impeach Al Makura...Nasarawa Lawmakers

The Nasarawa State House of Assembly has said that it will go ahead and impeach Governor Tanko Al-Makura.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Information and Security, Baba Ibaku, who stated this in an interview with our correspondent in Lafia on Wednesday, said that there was no going back on the impeachment move against the governor.

He said the panel set up by the Chief Judge, Justice Umaru Dikko, to investigate the 16 counts against the governor, breached Section 188 Subsection (5) of the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.

He, therefore, described the sitting of the panel as illegal.

Ibaku said that the lawmakers did not know whether there was any sitting of the panel on Tuesday or not.

The lawmaker stated, “As far as we are concerned, there is no seven-man panel that is investigating Governor Al-Makura, because we had earlier asked the state chief judge to disband the panel.

“We sent our legal team to appear before the panel yesterday (Tuesday) and we instructed them to simply tell the Chairman of the panel, Yusuf Usman, that we (the lawmakers) only appeared through our legal team to register our protest against the composition of the panel because the members of the panel are political office holders,” he stated.

He said, “We will go-ahead with our moves to impeach Governor Al-Makura and nothing will stop us to step down on our plans, no matter what it entails. We are going to file a case before the law court as soon as we finish our deliberation,”

“We will always sit in any part of the state to pass another resolution,”

On its part, the governor lauded the decision of the judicial panel.

Al-Makura, who gave the commendation in an interview with journalists in Lafia, described the outcome of the panel as a victory for democracy.

The governor said, “My victory is for the rule of law. I am sure the people of goodwill and the people of Nasarawa State, even without coming to the tribunal, know who the governor is and what he could do and what he can or not do. My vindication is for the good people of Nasarawa State.”

While dedicating the victory to the people of the state, he urged them to be on the right part of the law. He also commended the role played by the team of his legal experts.

But the Legal Adviser to the outlawed Ombatse Militia Group, Zachariah Allumaga, condemned the seven-man panel for dismissing the allegations against the governor.

According to him, Al-Makura has been using the instruments of state powers to the disservice of the people.

He said, “The governor has always, since his assumption of office, been the judge in his own case,” adding that the people of the state would oppose such moves by the governor.

Allumaga, who spoke in an interview in Lafia, argued further that the state lawmakers were on course. However, he said they should go ahead with their actions in the spirit of the constitution.

He called on members of the state House of Assembly not to derail, adding that what happened at the panel was a child’s play.

The legal adviser of the Ombatse cult group faulted the state chief judge, whom he said had made himself to be used by a drowning governor.

Allumaga, who is also a former Magistrate in the state, said that Dikko has done a great havoc to Section 188 of the Constitution. He urged the state House of Assembly and the Nigerian Judicial Council to sanction him.

According to him, the CJ constituted a panel that had the governor’s cronies, card-carrying party members and government appointees.