The ruling Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives
Congress have intensified their battle to control Adamawa State.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the PDP was working hard to force
the state governor, Alhaji Murtala Nyako, to resign so that the ruling party
could recapture the state.
The governor, it was further learnt, almost bowed to
pressure from the PDP members in the state House of Assembly when the
investigative panel set up by the Acting Chief Judge, Justice Ambrose Mammadi,
began sitting in Yola early in the week.
It was learnt that the governor was ready to resign early
this week.
It was, however, gathered that his party, APC, persuaded him
not to resign, while the party leadership continued to lobby some of the
lawmakers.
Sources said the APC thought that it was still premature for
Nyako to resign while the leadership of the party was trying to frustrate the
impeachment plot.
There were reports that the embattled governor would, on
Tuesday, tender his resignation letter and pave way for his deputy, Mr. Bala
Ngilari, to be sworn in as governor.
Nyako, who was reported to have left Abuja for Yola, the
Adamawa State capital, to resign however made a surprise appearance at the
National Council of State meeting on Tuesday.
His spokesman, Ahmed Sajo, was reported on Wednesday as
saying that his boss was still considering resignation.
He had said, “The resignation is just an option. That is if
the whole thing will lead to a crisis, there will be no option than to resign.”
But a member of the APC National Working Committee, who
confided in one of our correspondents, said that the party was not in support
of the governor’s plan to resign.
He said, “We are supporting the governor and we have been
working to frustrate the impeachment plot. We cannot be discussing our
strategies on the pages of newspapers.
“But we do not want him to resign. He has been told not to
resign.”
Nyako had, in the letter, accused the President of
committing genocide against the North in the name of Boko Haram. But the
governor was said to have refused to apologise at the meeting.
While the APC leadership lobbied some lawmakers in Adamawa
State, it was gathered that the PDP was also putting pressure on them not to
back down from the impeachment plot.
Efforts to get reactions of the APC National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, failed as he had yet to respond to the text
message sent to his mobile telephone.
But Mohammed had on Wednesday accused “higher authorities”
of instigating the impeachment.
Though the PDP, distanced itself from the issue, saying that
it should not be dragged into the impeachment plot, the spokesman for PDP
Stakeholders and Elders’ Forum, Dr. Umar Ardo, on Friday threatened to sanction
any legislator on the party’s platform who backs out of the move to impeach
Nyako and Ngilari.
Ardo said, “The impending impeachment of Nyako and his
deputy is a PDP affair, we have got to a level where none of our 20 lawmakers
who earlier signed the impeachment notice will be allowed to withdraw. Any PDP
lawmaker that retraces his step ceases to be a member of PDP.”
Speaking through its Deputy National Publicity Secretary,
Alhaji Abdullahi Jalo, on Thursday, the PDP said that it would be uncharitable
for anyone to drag the national headquarters of the party into the crisis.
He said, “What is happening in Adamawa State is a local
affair. Members of the state House of Assembly were elected by their people to
represent them.
“Even Governor Murtala Nyako, who has since left the PDP,
has told the whole world that he will ask for President Jonathan’s help if he
needs it.
“I don’t know why you want to drag our party into an issue
that is purely a local affair between a governor and his legislators.”
But a member of the House of Representatives from Adamawa
State, Mr. Nwangubi Fons, said that only God could save Nyako from being
impeached.
Incidentally, Fons, who represents Mayo-Belwa/Jada/Ganye
Federal Constituency, is the governor’s representative.
Nyako hails from Mayo-Belwa Local Government Area of the
state.
“Unless there is divine intervention, the governor is going,
because members of the state House of Assembly are on the right path,” Fons
told Saturday PUNCH in an interview in Abuja.
He said the Adamawa lawmakers had already gone far in their
decision to impeach Nyako, whom he accused of running the state without
consulting other stakeholders, particularly those who supported his election in
2007.
Asked what could have been the governor’s offence, Fons
replied that Nyako did not feel that he should be accountable to the people of
the state.
He said, “Nyako has failed to work based on the principle of
budgeting.
“He overspends money and maintains only his family and
friends in the system. He has abandoned those who worked for him and has no
respect for anybody, including Mr. President.
“When he came into office, the first thing he did was to do
away with the person, who single-handedly brought him to office, Prof. Jibrin
Aminu.
“If the governor has been good, how come all the eight
members of the House of Representatives from the state are in PDP?
“Hardly will anybody say that the governor is performing.
“If you are good as a governor, 19 members of the state
House of Assembly will not sign to impeach you. It means that they have
abandoned the governor.”
However, Nyako’s spokesperson, Sajo, faulted the lawmakers’
planned impeachment, adding that the people had rejected them.
He said, “Some of these members of the state and National
Assembly brought rice and sugar to distribute to people, but the people
rejected the gifts. This, you will agree with me, tells how the people have
rejected them.
“The people rejected these gifts in spite of the untold
hardship they are passing through even during this holy month of Ramadan.
“As a politician when this happens, you have to take a
second look at yourself. Then somebody sits down in Abuja and tells you that
the governor has lost people.
“Do you have an idea of how many people gathered when the
governor inaugurated chairmen of our development areas on Thursday? The banquet
hall could not contain the people, most of them sat outside.
Punch.
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