Abia & Jigawa State Legislature Impeach Speakers

The Jigawa House of Assembly on Tuesday impeached its Speaker, Alhaji Idris Garba and elected Alhaji Isa Idris of Gwaram Constituency as the new Speaker.

The Deputy Speaker, Alhaji Ahmed Garba presided over the sitting attended by 23 members.

The Clerk of the House, Alhaji Hussaini Ali earlier announced that he received an impeachment notice signed by 25 of the 30 assembly members, and which he read on the floor of the house.
Ali disclosed that members of the assembly impeached the speaker due to alleged high handedness and abuse of power.
The Deputy Speaker read the impeachment notice on the floor of the house, and confirmed the number of members that signed the notice.

Garba said that 25 of the 30-member assembly that endorsed the impeachment notice showed that it met the constitutional requirement of two third to impeach any of its principal officers.

“With this development, I hereby declare the seat of the Speaker vacant and a fresh election should be conducted to elect the new speaker,” he said.

Two members– Alhaji Isa Dutse of Dutse Municipal constituency and Isa Idris of Gwaram constituency– were nominated for the election to replace the impeached Speaker.

Isa Idris, however, defeated Isa Dutse with 12 to six votes, while five members were indifferent.

In his acceptance Speech, the new Speaker promised to run an open door policy and solicited members support and cooperation.

The Abia House of Assembly also impeached its eighth speaker, Martins Azubuike, over alleged  gross financial misconduct and autocratic leadership style.

Six days after being ousted from office, Azubuike, said that his uprightness cost him the job.

Azubuike who made the disclosure on Sunday at a reception by his community, Umunneato-Ngwa, said he was impeached because of not consenting to sharing of funds meant for projects.

“I chose to deploy available funds to projects and not sharing it among members,’’ he said.

 

He told the audience that he committed no impeachable offence but was removed because he did not accede to demands to share allocations to the house among the members.

Azubuike, highly revered by workers in the House of Assembly for his experience as a third-term legislator, listed the projects executed during his more than one year tenure as Speaker.

According to him, the projects include the completion of an office complex for the 24 legislators which was started in 2007.

Azubuike said other projects were the computerisation of the operations and a website for the Assembly to enable members to track its activities from within and outside the complex.

He said that he also procured vehicles for the members and two buses for committee assignments by members.

“These monetary achievements were the challenges I had with the members because I did not agree that the money should be put on the table to be shared by members,’’ Azubuike said.

He also reeled out a number of constituency projects he executed in his Isiala Ngwa North, to include the grading of roads in the area and bursary award to 100 students.

The former speaker said that he organised free medical services for people of the area as well as schools competitions during which scholarships were awarded to the best students among other projects.

Azubuike said that at the inception of the sixth Assembly, his leadership articulated a roadmap for 2015/2019 on how to drive development in the state.

According to him, whatever the present administration of Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu has achieved from inception to date was as a result of the initiatives by the House under his watch.

He said that since his emergence as Speaker, he supported the governor against the background that it was the first time an Ngwa extraction produced a governor since the creation of Abia.

Azubike, however, expressed his readiness to continue to support the governor to ensure his success.

He also assured his people that he would continue to provide effective representation in the House.

“I am not going to take the back seat but I will take the front seat because I do not see anybody in the House that can do it better than I.’’

The former Speaker also thanked the organisers of the event and elders of the area for the honour done to him.

He said that he had been consoled by their solidarity and kind words which he hoped to cherish all his life.

Speaking with newsmen on the sidelines of the event, Azubuike said that he was not served a notice of impeachment to enable him defend himself against the allegations.