Plateau Assembly crisis: Youths movement protest in Abuja, urge Senate intervention

A coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) under the aegis of Not-Too-Young-To-Run Movement (NTYTRM) has urged the Senate to invite the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba and the Director of State Services (DSS) Yusuf Magaji Bichi to explain what they called a drama at the Plateau State House of Assembly.

The CSOs said that with the protection of the Police and DSS officers, six members of the Plateau State House of Assembly sat at different time of plenary and purportedly impeached their speaker, Hon Ayuba Nuhu Abok.

• Impeached Plateau speaker presides over sitting in community hall, suspends 6
• New Plateau Speaker visits Government House, pledges support for Lalong

Daily Trust reports that the Plateau State House of Assembly on Thursday morning impeached Abok, following weeks of tense relationship between the lawmaker and Governor Simon Lalong.

The lawmakers immediately elected Sanda Yakubu, member representing Pengana state constituency of Bassa Local Government Area, as their new speaker, despite opposition of the minority Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members.

Twelve members of the House later sat at a different location, passed a vote of confidence on Abok and suspend the six members that purportedly impeached the Speaker.

However, at a press conference on Friday in Abuja, leaders of the CSOs said what happened in Plateau State House of Assembly was a charade and a threat to democracy, calling on the National Assembly to intervene.

The Executive Director, Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, said the six members of the Plateau State House of Assembly convened an unlawful sitting of the House where they illegally sat and initiated an impeachment of Speaker Abok, one of Nigeria’s young Speakers of state legislatures.

“Reports indicate that the purported impeachment initiated by the Deputy Speaker Sale Yipmong was executed under questionable circumstances. First, contrary to the rules of the House, which stipulate 9:00 am as official sitting time, the sitting held before the official time of sitting of House.

“Second, the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Police barricaded the Plateau State Assembly. Only six members who executed the impeachment were granted access to the Assembly complex.

“The Movement notes that the State House of Assembly is a creation of the Constitution and must in all instances be seen to act in consonance and conformity with the Constitution. The purported impeachment of Hon Abok violates the procedure prescribed by the Constitution for the impeachment of a duly elected Speaker of a House of Assembly, Section 92(2)(c) of the 1999 Constitution (As amended) provides that a Speaker can only be removed from office by a resolution or votes of not less than two-thirds majority of members of the House of Assembly.

“By virtue of this provision, a minimum of sixteen (16) members of the House of 24 people would have been required to successfully impeach the Speaker in this instance, rendering the action of the six members illegal and in direct contravention of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Itodo said.

Also, Hamza Lawal, the convener of Follow The Money and CEO of Connected Development (CODE), said the action of the six members of the Plateau State House of Assembly remains condemnable and intolerable.

“President Muhammadu Buhari should issue a directive to the security to restore normalcy with Ayuba restored as the duly Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly,” he said.

Also, Tony Chinedu Nwulu, a member of the NTYTRM and sponsor of the Not-Too-Young-To-Run bill in the House of Representatives that eventually became a law, said days of kangaroo impeachment are gone.

“If the Speaker do something wrong, the processes must be legal. So, the National Assembly must compel the IGP and the DSS DG to explain what happened in Plateau State House of Assembly.

Equally speaking at the briefing, the embattled Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly Hon. Ayuba Nuhu Abok told journalists that the state governor, Simon Bako Lalong, has vowed to remove him as a speaker even with two signatures from members of the house.

Abok said immediately the House asked the governor to handle the security situation is the state without bias, their relationship went wrong.

He said, “What happened in Plateau is very unfortunate. It is not supposed to be engineered by someone who has held such an office and as the governor of Plateau State and chairman of Northern States Governors Forum.

“The youth of this country must rise up. We have employed over 250 youths in the legislative branch. We are 14 in number and 12 were at the sitting I presided over. So, if the governor said he has some members, how did we get the 12 members?

“The fight started when we gave him an ultimatum to end the killings in Plateau State. We told the governor that justice should be given to all and sundry. The governor has not been managing the crisis in the state very well and when we took our stand, he said he was going to remove me with even two signatures of members of the state house of Assembly.”

On his part, the spokesman of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Dasun Philip Peter, said President Buhari does not tolerate any act of illegality and that the President as a man of integrity should act fast.

He said, “We were eight in the chamber. I arrived and we rushed to protect the mace. I shouted but no one could listen to me. I was hit and blood started rushing in my mouth. Some of our members came, the mace was not on the stand during the sitting.

“Few members moved to the government house with a purported speaker but 12 of us sat, pass a vote of confidence on the speaker and also suspended the six members that perpetrated such an illegal act.”