Drama In Plateau State As 8 House Members Allegedly Impeached Speaker

In what look like a return to the dark days, some members of the Plateau State House of Assembly on Thursday morning threw the Constitutional provisions guiding the removal of Principal Officers of the House to the wind as they announced the impeachment of the Speaker of the House, Hon. Abok Ayuba.

Surprisingly, only eight of the members, constituting one-quarter of the 24 member parliament carried out the alleged impeachment as against the constitutionally required two-thirds of the members which is expected to be 16.

The unusual sitting on Thursday morning which was presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Saleh Yipmong, again went ahead to announce the election of Hon. Yakubu Sanda (APC-Pengana) as the new speaker.

Information pieced together by Forefront News indicate that the desperate eight members on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) gained access to the House as early as 6:00am before carrying out their hatchet plan.

The eight members were provided with heavy security cover as heavily armed security personnel condoned off the prescient of the Assembly.

The eight APC lawmakers said they would be presenting their new Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Sanda to Governor Simon Lalong at the Government House, Jos this morning.

It was gathered that the eight APC lawmakers had on Wednesday attempted to impeach the Speaker but were rebuffed and resisted by the majority of the members of the House that told them in clear terms that they were not going to allow the Executive arm of government to destablilise the legislature.

Having failed to achieve their plan on Wednesday, they met and planned overnight to meet at the Assembly in the early hours of the Thursday to carry out their plan without any consideration for the rules and provisions of the Constitution.

Commenting on the incident, a member of the House, Hon. Nanbol Daniel (PDP-Langtang North Central), pointedly said that the illegal impeachment would not hold water as failed all rules and procedures of the House and the provisions of the Constitution on impeachment of a Speaker and or Deputy Speaker.

Forefront News also gathered that a group allegedly being sponsored by the Plateau State Governor had written a petition against the Speaker which went viral in the social media on Wednesday accusing him of corruption.

The group on the aegis of Youths Rights Against Corruption (YRAC) said it has submitted a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against the Speaker accusing him of several maladministration, abuse of office and financial misappropriation.

The group therefore demanded the Speaker to as a matter of urgency and importance, step down from his position pending the completion of investigation.

The Executive Director of the group, Abednego Musa, who signed the petition with the titled; “Petition Against Plateau State House of Assembly Speaker, Nuhu Abok Ayuba, On Gross Financial Misconduct, Criminal Breach Of Public Trust And Abuse Of Office,” said they would not rest until the Speaker leaves office.

The allegedly impeached Speaker and the majority members of the Assembly are yet to officially react to the development.