The Speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Alhaji Mu’azu Gangara and other principal officers of the House can now heave a sigh of relief, following the collapse of the impeachment plot against them.
Twenty out of 34 lawmakers had last month collected signatures and given Gangara, asking him and principal officers to resign from office on or before September 14, 2013.
However, Hon. Aminu Shagali (CPC, Sabon-gari) and Hon. Yakubu Nkom Bityong (PDP, Kaura) have withdrawn their signatories from the purported plot to impeach the leadership of the House.
According to a credible source, the two lawmakers have accused the promoters of the impeachment plot of lack of sincerity.
The withdrawal of the two lawmakers has now made the impeachment process tedious, because the lawmakers needed a total of 24 signatories to impeach the House’s leadership; their withdrawal has now reduced the number of the anti-speaker lawmakers to 18 and that of the pro-speaker to 16.
The lawmakers plotting for its leadership’s impeachment under the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) include: Hon. Irimiya Ishaku Kantiyok (Zonkwa), Hon. Peter Adamu (Kagarko), Hon. Esther Habu (Sanga), Maikudi Tanko (Chikun), Joshua Yakubu Barde (Kajuru), Mohammed Yunusa (Lere West), Philemon Usman (Makera), Yunusa Turawa (Soba), Mohammed Hassan Jumare (Makarfi), TahirUsman (Giwa West), Muntakar Bashir Zuntu (Kubau) and Shehu Nuhu Babajo (Zaria city).
Those who also signed the impeachment notice on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) include: Bala Inusa (Tudun-Wada), Mohammed Ali (Kawo), Gambo Ibrahim (Igabi East), Yusuf Zailani (Igabi West), Yakubu Yusuf (Zaria Kewaye), and Haliru Sambo (Ikara).
Those lawmakers and the principal officers who refused to sign the impeachment book include Labari Tela (PDP, Jema’a), Yohanna Jatau (PDP, Jaba), Yakubu Nkom Bityong (PDP, Kaura), Esther Abba (PDP, Zango Kataf), Shu’aibu Tukura (PDP, Kauru/Chawai), Haruna M.A Inuwa (Doka/Gabasawa), Aminu Abdullahi Shagali (CPC, Sabon-Gari), and Abdullahi Kali (CPC, Magaji).
Speaking to this correspondnet, a member of the pro-speaker who pleaded for anonymity said he refused to sign the impeachment book on the basis of integrity.
“I and other colleagues who believe in integrity refused to signed the impeachment book because we did not find the House leadership wanting in anything; they have executed their work effectively. That they present governor doesn’t like them is not enough reason to impeach them,” he said.
He further alleged that “at a meeting with the governor after the impeachment plot failed, the governor openly told us that he does not want to work with the speaker. He accused the speaker of being too loyal the former secretary to the state government, Alhaji Abdulahi Yakawada.”
One of the lawmakers who withdrew his signature told our correspondent in confidence that he decided to withdraw from the impeachment plot because of lack of sincerity on the part of the promoters.
“I discovered they were being sponsored to impeach the House leadership,” he said.
Efforts to reach the spokesman to Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, Malam Ahmed Maiyaki, were unsuccessful at the time of filing this report.