Deputy Governor, Taraba State, Alhaji Sani Abubakar Danladi

Wole Ayodele

As part of efforts to impeach the Deputy Governor of the state, Alhaji Sani Abubakar Danladi, the Taraba State House of Assembly has directed the state Chief Judge, Justice Josephine Tuktur, to immediately constitute an investigative panel.

The panel is expected to investigate the allegations of gross misconduct and abuse of office contained in the impeachment notice served him a fortnight ago.

This is coming barely 24 hours after his name was deleted from the list of recipients for this year’s national honours where he was billed to receive the prestigious award of Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR). 

This is sequel to the receipt by the House of the response of the deputy governor to the allegations levelled against him before the expiration of the 14-day ultimatum required of him in which he exonerated himself of any wrong doing as claimed in the impeachment notice.

Though details of the deputy governor’s response to the allegations is yet to be made public, THISDAY investigations reveal that he addressed all the issues raised by the Assembly members which he described as baseless and cheap blackmail.

However, there are indications that Danladi may resort to seek redress legally. The decision of the Assembly to direct the Chief Judge to set up the committee, THISDAY learnt, was to give the deputy governor fair hearing and abide by all constitutional provisions in a bid to avoid any lacuna that could be exploited by embattled deputy governor.
Rising from an emergency sitting held at about 9:30 pm on Tuesday to deliberate on the deputy governor’s response to the allegations, the legislators unanimously agreed that the CJ should be empowered to set up the panel to investigate the alleged offences of the deputy governor.

The emergency sitting, which lasted for several hours, was attended by the 21 members of the House and were unanimous in their decision to empower the Chief Judge to empanel a committee to investigate the alleged misconduct to the deputy governor.

Giving reasons for the decision of the House, Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Hon Ishaya Gani, said the members were recalled from recess to deliberate on the issue so as to adhere to the provisions of the constitution.

According to him “The House unanimously agreed to allow the doctrine of separation of power to come to play since the judiciary is the arbiter in such issues. The members have also agreed to abide by the decision of the investigative panel and if the outcome of the investigation favours him, good. But if it does not, we’re ready to show him the way out.”