Fresh crisis rocks Kaduna Assembly over Speaker’s impeachment

A FRESH political crisis engulfed the Kaduna State House of Assembly yesterday following the impeachment of the Speaker, Alhaji Mu’azu Usman Gangara, by aggrieved legislators who had given an earlier 30-day ultimatum for him to vacate office.

   At the expiration of the notice, the aggrieved legislators stormed the House of Assembly complex without the impeached Speaker and some other principal officers, and elected a new Speaker, Alhaji Shehu Tahir.

   Besides, the political quagmire that followed Gangara’s impeachment also opened a can of warms, as 15 lawmakers sympathetic to the embattled Speaker, mostly principal officers, immediately addressed a press conference during which they accused Vice President Namadi Sambo and Governor Mukhtar Yero of allegedly instigating the crisis in the Assembly.

   And in his address, the new Speaker, Tahir, said that what transpired yesterday morning was a clear manifestation that democracy is driven by the will and voice of the majority.

   To the legislators, he said: “The action you have taken, I believe, must have been informed by the strong desire and urgent desire to transform and re-inviolate this House for maximum results. 

   “However, for the House to be focused and vibrant to meet present-day reality, all members must resolve to undertake their constitutional mandate with all seriousness it deserves.”

   He urged the lawmakers to formulate laws that would bring development to the state and not only “promote peace, unity and good governance in our state but also guarantee the dividends of democracy for our electorate.”

   However, Gangara and 15 others immediately addressed a press conference at the Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Kaduna to reject the action of the Nigeria19 other legislators.

   They accused Sambo and Yero of using their invisible fingers to stir crisis in the House, while also alleging that N10 million was released to those who masterminded the impeachment.

   “We want to categorically inform you that the purported sitting by some members of the Kaduna State House of Assembly is a nullity,” he said, while stressing that “the House has since suspended its sitting until further notice.

   “We therefore urge the citizens of Kaduna State, especially our teeming supporters, to remain calm and ignore the impunity going on in the House of Assembly.”

   Also, the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Mato Dogara, Majority Leader, Mr. David Umar Gurara and Minority Leader condemned the crisis that engulfed the Assembly, stating that “no official act of impropriety has been levelled against the Speaker before embarking on this illegal act.”

   They also accused Governor Yero and “the Oga in Abuja, who want the Speaker to be removed by all means and install their stooge.”

   But in a swift reaction, the governor’s Director General, Media and Publicity, Mallam Ahmed Meyaiki, denied that the government was behind the Speaker’s impeachment.

   According to him, “it is totally untrue. It is the pigment of the imagination of those peddling this dangerous rumour. His Excellency is a neutral person who believes on the independence of the legislative arm of government.

   “As an arm of government, they have the right as to who leads them. As a true democrat, His Excellency’s major interest is good governance and how to deliver the dividends of democracy to the good people of the state.”