All is still not well between Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State and majority of the members of the state House of Assembly, despite escaping the first round of impeachment two weeks ago.
The aggrieved lawmakers, who are unhappy that the governor was cleared of all the allegations they levelled against him, hatched a fresh plot at the weekend at a secret location in Lafia, the state capital to push out the governor within a week.
Under the plot, which has now received the blessing of the PDP top hierarchy in the country, Al-Makura is to be probed by another panel to be hurriedly raised by a vacation judge in the state and made up mostly elements to be selected by the lawmakers.
To pave the way for the raising of another panel to tackle the governor, the lawmakers are planning an emergency session on Monday during which they would pass a vote of no confidence on the State Chief Judge, Justice Suleiman Dikko and suspend him from office.
While on suspension, the lawmakers would empower the vacation judge in the state to constitute a ‘friendly’ panel to take a fresh look at the allegations of gross misconduct and indict the governor within the first day of sitting.
Based on the report, the legislators are to remove the governor the following day and swear in his deputy, Dameshi Barau Luka.
A top source close to the lawmakers told Vanguard last night that they were set to reconvene early this week and pass a resolution directing the Vacation Judge in the state, Justice Rose Soji, to raise a fresh panel to probe allegations of gross misconduct against Al-Makura.
The source explained that the legislators were determined to take any step possible to ensure that the governor was removed within a week from the date of the setting up of the new panel.
The official explained that the lawmakers opted to take fresh steps to sack the governor since the Chief Judge had violated the law by putting pro-Al-Makura members in the panel that eventually cleared the governor.
The source said: “What the lawmakers are going to do this time around is to ensure that the governor is removed within days by the anti-Al-Makura panel they plan to raise on Monday or Tuesday this week before the CJ, Justice Suleiman Dikko, who they don’t trust returns from vacation next month.
A top government official privy to the plot said that the lawmakers are angry with the governor for various reasons chief among them being that he refused to dump the APC for PDP after being assisted to win the election petition case in 2012.
The governor is also said to be in the lawmakers’ bad books for reporting them to the EFCC that they pocketed billions of state funds under the guise of executing non-existing constituency projects.
