Six Plateau Lawmakers Suspended Over Impeachement Move

Six members of the Plateau State House of Assembly have been suspended for allegedly spearheading the impeachment of Abok Ayuba Nuhu as the Speaker.

Ezenwoko’s Blog earlier reported that Nuhu was reportedly impeached on Thursday by sixteen lawmakers out of the 24 members of the Assembly.

Following his purported impeachment, Nuhu was replaced with Sanda Yakubu, who hails from Pingana constituency of Bassa Local Government Area of the state.

Presiding over a plenary at the Zawan Community Association Hall in Jos, Nuhu rejected his removal as the Speaker of the House, saying that the plan will not stand.

During the sitting, the embattled speaker upheld a motion raised by the Deputy Majority Leader of the Assembly, Philip Dasun and seconded by the Minority Leader, Peter Gyendeng to suspend the six members.

Those suspended are the Deputy Speaker, Saleh Yipmong, Majority Leader, Na’anlong Daniel, the new Speaker, Yakubu Sanda, former Deputy Speaker, Ibrahim Baba Hassan, Eric Dakogol, Abubakar Balo.

Briefing journalists shortly after the sitting, the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Philip Dasun said the six members remain suspended until further notice.

He said, “The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria makes a clear provision for the impeachment of the Speaker, it requires a 2/3 majority, we are 24, we are supposed to have a minimum of 16 members to sign and affirm the impeachment of the Speaker.

“To our greatest surprise, we were in the House today very early in the morning, we got an information that there is an attempt to impeach our Speaker. I went and I found seven people and I was the eighth person before the rest came. We are not in agreement with what happened, the Governor is a lawyer, he knows the constitution, he will not accept that illegal process, if he does, it is left for him to battle with his profession.”