The lingering Executive and Legislative arms of government’s crisis in Adamawa State came to its climax on Wednesday as nine members believed to be loyal to Governor Bala Ngillari sat at the Conference Hall of the Government House and impeached both the Speaker, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri and his deputy, Kwamoti La’ori.
Fintiri was replaced by Hon. Jerry Kumdisi as the new speaker following a motion moved by Hon Kabillo and seconded by the member representing Yola South, Hon Abuzarri Ribadu.
In the run-up to the just concluded general elections in the country, the House of Assembly had gone on a three-week recess to allow members participate in the electoral process, but a day to the re-opening of the House, 11 members believed to be loyal to Ngillari, issued a statement expressing their dissatisfaction with the leadership style of Fintiri and threatened to effect a change in the house leadership.
The threat forced Fintiri to shift the plenary which ought to have commenced on Monday, April 20, to Monday, April 27 but even at that, the House could not sit as the Assembly remained under lock and key prompting the aggrieved lawmakers to issue another statement warning that since the speaker could not open the House for legislative functions, they had no alternative order than to sit anywhere else within the state.
As the crisis deepened, nine among the 11 aggrieved lawmakers Tuesday convened at the Government House where they removed the speaker and his deputy.
As soon as the nine lawmakers arrived the conference room, the member representing Gombi Constituency, Jerry Kumdisi moved for the appointment of Wale Fwa as protem speaker and was seconded by the member representing Girei constituency Abubakar Umar Girei.
While presiding over the session, Fwa noted that the reason for convening the session followed the consistent refusal of Fintiri to open the House even as series of entreaties on him fell on deaf ears.
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