By Bologi Muhammed, with agency reports
The reported attempt by Zamfara State House of Assembly members to impeach Governor Abdulaziz Yari over alleged misappropriation of funds has taken a new controversial turn.
Reports monitored on the Hausa Service of Voice of America on Wednesday said the Speaker of the House, Sanusi Rikiji, his deputy, Muhammad Gumi, Majority Leader, Isah Abdulmumini, and Chief Whip , Abdullahi Dansadau have been arrested by the Department of State Services on the ’orders’ of the governor.
According to the VOA, the lawmakers were at the time of filing this story, locked up in a DSS facility in Abuja after the governor accused them of plotting to impeach him.
According to one of the lawmakers, Umaru Faru, who spoke to the VOA, trouble began for them after the assembly called for a special sitting with Governor Yari to discuss what it called “the difficult economic situation the state found itself”
However, the lawmakers said the governor mistook their aim to be an impeachment plot and instigated their arrest.
“People accuse the governor of abandoning the state, and they are also complaining about the handling of the state resources especially the bailout funds released specifically to pay workers’ salaries”.
“The money came but no one knows what happened to it, as we speak local government staff, pensioners have not been paid, in fact, our traditional rulers have not been paid their 5% constitutional allocation for several months, civil servants pay was cut and some of them were even sacked because of dwindling revenue, however, they were not paid their entitlement even after the bailout came.
“That is why we invited them, definitely not for impeachment purposes,” he said.
Unconfirmed reports also claim that lawmakers who escaped arrest have fled the state and were taking refuge in Kaduna.
The Chairman, House Committee on Information, Mannir Gidan Jaji had also issued a statement on Tuesday night, accusing the governor of abuse of office and calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene.
He also accused the governor of “corrupt usage of local government funds for state purposes”.
According to the statement, the governor had also been able to explain how the N1 billion commercial agriculture loan given to the state by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, was utilized.
They equally accused him of “non-remittance of pension funds to pension administrators, non-remittance of 5 percent emirate councils funds, the gross misappropriation of bailout funds to the state by the federal government to settle workers’ salaries, including N10b for 2014 and N1.46b in 2016”.
The lawmakers said Zamfara was almost crippled owing to the governor’s frequent trip abroad, and that instead of addressing the issues they raised, the governor “resorted to political intimidation, arrest and detention of principal officers of the House and other supporting staff”.
The state Commissioner for Information, Umaru Bukkuyum, has however denied the allegations, saying the lawmakers were merely invited to Abuja to facilitate a dialogue that would bring an end to the crises.
