Nasarawa State Governor, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura


• Assembly members deny N40m bribery allegation to remove governor
By George Okoh and Adebiyi Adedapo

The embattled Nasarawa State Governor, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, has prevailed on President Goodluck Jonathan to save him from the threat to impeach him from office.

The state House of Assembly dominated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had on Monday issued a notice of impeachment on Al-Makura.

This came as members of the state House of Assembly yesterday denied that the impeachment notice to the governor was orchestrated by some Abuja politicians.

The lawmakers also denied that each assembly member who signed the impeachment notice was paid N40 million each to support the impeachment.

THISDAY yesterday gathered that the governor had hurriedly left Lafia, the state capital for Abuja to plead with the president for intervention on the matter.

It learnt that before Al-Makura left the state capital on Tuesday, he held series of meetings with his aides and party officials’ intent upon seeing how the impeachment impasse can be surmounted.

Addressing the press at the assembly complex however, the Clerk of the assembly, Mr. Ego Maikeffi, disclosed that after several attempts to serve the impeachment notice on the governor, he was denied access into the Government House.

Ego stated further that in line with the directive of the Speaker, he was set to serve the notice through the media today.

The House Committee Chairman on Information and Security, Hon. Mohammed Baba Ibaku, confirmed the development, saying other options of serving the notice would be explored.

In a swift reaction however, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Affairs, Hon. Abdulhamid Kwarra, denied the report, insisting that the assembly was yet to serve the notice as a 6p.m. yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the assembly Committee on Information and Security, Hon. Baba Ibaku, stated this during a chat with journalists yesterday in Abuja.

He also said the assembly members were not aware of President Jonathan’s visit to the state where he inaugurated the largest rice mill in Africa.

He said issuing an impeachment notice to Governor Al-Makura the same day President Jonathan visited the state was a mere coincidence.
Ibaku who was in the company of the House Majority Leader Hon. Godia Akwashiki, and some other lawmakers from the state, expressed disappointment over the conduct of the governor who had refused to receive the impeachment notice.

The lawmakers also accused the governor of sponsoring hoodlums to disrupt law and order in the state, alleging that Al-Makura paid N1 million each to the restless youths in each local government to create crisis.
Ibaku however, said the assembly members were united in impeaching the governor, adding that all the 16 allegations against the governor were backed-up with sufficient proofs.

He said 20 out of the 24 state lawmakers had already signed the impeachment notice and would not renege on it.

“We have equipped with allegations and proofs, our vehicle is overloaded and we are united. This explains why nobody was aware of the impeachment notice until it was signed and issued,” he said.

Ibaku said the allegations against the governor border on financial misappropriation, spending of unbudgeted funds and gross misconduct which could only be explained by assembly members.

“How can a governor spend funds that were not budgeted for and expect us to keep quiet, it is our job to ask questions on where he gets the money. We will serve him the impeachment notice, if he refused to respond to it, we shall direct the Chief Judge of the state to set-up a committee and if he refused to appear before the committee like the ex-Adamawa State Governor, Murtala Nyako, he will also become an ex-governor soon,” he said.

Ibaku stated further: “We did this singlehandedly, we are not being sponsored, if we were being sponsored, you would have seen police around us. We issued the notice without the presence of a single security personnel,” he added.

However, thousands of protesters yesterday block major road as they staged a peacefulprotest against the impeachment plot.
The protesters marched from Keffi to Mararaba axis of the state chanting and calling on the assembly to stop their action.

The protesters expressed their grievances over “frequent interference and impeachment threat on the governor” which is “distracting him from delivering more dividends of democracy to the people of the state.”
They called on the aggrieved legislators to embrace peace and rescind their decision.