Kano Assembly Shut over Plan to Impeach Speaker

• Adjourns sitting till June
Ibrahim Shuaibu in Kano
The Kano State House of Assembly was Monday sealed up by the police following moves to impeach the Speaker, Abdullahi Yusuf Ata, by some of its members.

However, sources close to the assembly confided in THISDAY that as at last night, 21 lawmakers had duly supported of the impeachment.
It was further confirmed that already, the principal officers of the assembly had been impeached, having gathered 21 signatories for their impeachment.

“The principal officers have already been impeached with the signatures of 21 lawmakers we have gathered. All what we need now is only six members to meet the requirement of 2/3 to impeach the speaker without delay.”

On why the lawmakers resolved to impeach the leaders of the assembly, the source said: “The reasons are many but the major one is incompetence. The speaker has virtually localised the assembly.

“We cannot sit until after 2p.m. and even at that, things are not moving as expected. We cannot just continue like that because we are representing our constituencies.”

Reacting to the impeachment move, the speaker of the House of Assembly, Ata, noted that as Muslim, who believe in destiny, he will accept his impeachment in good faith.

Ata, who spoke to newsmen said, the attempt by some members of the house to impeach him has nothing to do with competence as alleged.

He said: “In anything, there is a starting and ending point. If Allah has designed it that my time is up, nobody will extend it by a second. And if it is not time, nobody can remove me from office, that is my belief.

“My happiness is that I didn’t not steal anybody’s money. So if today, they remove me from office, I will leave, but nobody will accuse me of stealing. I have a constituency that I am representing.”

The speaker also adjourned plenary to end of June 2018, stating that the adjournment is to allow members prepare for the month of Ramadan and Idil-Fitr.

He enjoined the members and the public to make good use of the holy month in praying for forgiveness and progress of the state and Nigeria at large.

However, the fierce-looking policemen have laid siege in the assembly, as both the exit and entrance of the assembly were under lock and key.

Spokesman of the police in the state, Magaji Musa Majia, confirmed the deployment of the police to assembly.
Sources said the move to seal the assembly was to possibly avert the impeachment of the speaker.

The Speaker, Ata, succeeded Alhaji Kabiru Alhasssan Rurum, who resigned from office last June, following allegations of corruption against him.

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