Strong indications emerged Sunday night that the panel raised by the Adamawa State House of Assembly to probe the allegations of misappropriation of funds had indicted the state governor, Murtala Nyako and may have cleared his deputy, Bala James Ngilari.
A top government official, who is privy to the work of the seven-man panel, told our correspondent that the report concluded that Nyako was guilty and should be removed but did not indict Ngilari.
“What we have is that the panel has already passed a guilty verdict on the governor but we have not heard anything concerning the deputy governor.
“In any case, the verdict of the panel, which was set up under duress is not surprising to the governor since we had already known and seen their handwriting on the wall before they began their work,” the official said.
Apparently angered and jostled by the verdict of the panel, the governor,it was learnt learnt, has already filed an appeal at the Abuja Division of the Appeal Court against the procedure adopted by the House of Assembly to impeach him.
In the appeal, which according to sources is being handled by a fiery Lagos-based lawyer, Nyako is challenging the violation of the impeachment procedure as outlined in Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution.
In the main, the governor is claiming that it was a violation of the law for the lawmakers not to personally serve him the notice of impeachment as enshrined in the law but went ahead with the proceedings without satisfying the vital condition.
Similarly, the governor is challenging the decision of the then acting Chief Judge of the state, Justice Ambrose Mammadi, who had ordered the House of Assembly not to proceed with the impeachment proceedings without personally serving the governor and his deputy only for him to reverse himself by setting up a probe panel a day after.
It was also gathered that some loyalists of Nyako had petitioned the National Judicial Council, NJC, to investigate the action of the Adamawa CJ, whose three months’ tenure lapsed last week, over his conduct in the impeachment saga.
The actions notwithstanding, Nyako’s camp had been thrown into confusion with the indictment by the panel, whose report could be debated upon and action taken by the House of Assembly this week.
Sources said that Nyako’s only hope hinges on spirited efforts being made by his loyalists to ensure that the impeachment protagonists did not get the required two-thirds majority to remove him from office.
The governor’s camp had been gripped by fear following the inability of Nyako and his loyalists in Yola and Abuja to persuade majority of the state House of Assembly members to back out of the impeachment move against him.
It was learnt that despite several meetings between the governor and the aggrieved lawmakers, the governor’s camp could not secure the support of many members to stop his impeachment.
The House, which is made of 25 members, requires at least 17 members to be able to oust the governor but it was not clear as last night if the 19 members of the House, who signed the impeachment notice against the governor would still stand by their signature and remove him when the impeachment voting is conducted.
The PDP stakeholders in Adamawa and Abuja are in favour of the probe panel giving the deputy governor, Ngilari, who showed absolute loyalty by staying back in the party when Nyako left for the APC, a clean bill of health so that he can take over and run the state till next year.
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