The impeachment on Tuesday of embattled Murtala Hammanyero Nyako, former Adamawa State governor, by the state House of Assembly may have strengthened the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) resolve to hold on to power beyond 2015.
Nyako’s ouster came 24 days after his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), suffered an unbelievable defeat in the gubernatorial election held on June 21, 2014 in Ekiti State.
However, James Bala Ngilari, his deputy, who was also probed alongside Nyako, resigned on Tuesday before the impeachment proceedings against him and the governor began.
Nyako’s journey out of Government House effectively began two weeks ago when the lawmakers, who had perfected their plans to remove him from office, came up with 16 ‘strong’ allegations of misdeeds against him (Nyako).
The development has increased the number of states controlled by the PDP to 19, whereas APC is down to 15.
The governor was removed as the state House of Assembly deliberated on the report of an investigative panel that probed allegations of financial misconducts against him.
Eighteen of the 25 members of the House adopted the report of the panel after Fintiri, the speaker, read the report on the floor of the House.
The report found the governor guilty of all the 16 allegations of gross misconduct leveled against him by the House. The report was endorsed by all members of the panel.
The motion for the governor’s impeachment was moved by Jerry Kumdisi, member representing Gombi state constituency, and was seconded by Kwamoti Laori, the deputy speaker and member representing Numan state constituency.
All the18members present at the meeting signed the resolution removing the governor.
Earlier, Ngilari, the state deputy governor, had resigned from office to avoid being impeached.
Ngilari’s resignation letter was read at plenary by the speaker after which the lawmakers approved it.
It would be recalled that the committee submitted its report to the House on Monday.
On Tuesday, the House sat to consider the report of the seven-member investigative panel appointed to probe allegations of financial impropriety against the governor and his deputy.
Nyako had declared two days, July 7 and 8, as public holidays apparently to stall the impeachment move, although the officially stated reason was for citizens of Adamawa to “pray and reflect” on the state of the state.
Analysts say that with the impeachment process already commenced against Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa, PDP is likely to up its number by one state.
Nyako, a retired Admiral and a former chief of naval staff, dumped his former party, PDP, for APC in December last year.
His relationship with the PDP worsened following a letter he wrote recently to the Northern Governors’ Forum accusing President Goodluck
Jonathan of committing genocide in the region in the name of fighting terrorism.
Our correspondent gathered that the refusal of the former governor to retract his letter described as repugnant and publicly apologise to the president as demanded by him (Jonathan) nailed his political coffin.
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