Remain Speaker Of Kaduna State House Of Assembly - Gangara

Hon. Muazu Gangara, who was reported to have been forced out of office as Speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly  by 18 of its 34 members loyal to Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, insists he is the substantive Speaker and will challenge the issue in court.

Gangara spoke at a press conference in Kaduna last night, surrounded by 15 loyal members that included his deputy, Dr. Dogara Mato, as well as the Majority and Minority Leaders, Hon. David Umar and Dr. Shehu Usman Danfulani.

He described as “illegitimate” the action of the 18, led by Philemon Usman and Jerry Kantiok, by which they claimed to have impeached him and replaced him with Shehu Usman Tahir and Hon. Peter Adamu as Deputy Speaker, stressing the sitting did not enjoy the required quorum of 22 members.

“The purported sitting by some members of the Kaduna state House of Assembly is a nullity,” he said.  “Section 92 of the Constitution said no impeachment can take place until two-third of the elected members of the House are present, which have to be 22 out of the 34 members. They did not reach two-third of the membership of the House. The House has since suspended its sitting until further notice and it cannot reconvene without the permission of the chairman, Business and Rules Committee, which they did not get. The mace they used was brought out of the museum for the exercise. It was not the mace in use by the House.  We must respect the constitution of the country. The alternative is that we are heading to court to challenge the impeachment. We are going to follow it through in the court of law.”

It was also gathered that supporters of Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, despite absolving the governor of responsibility for the impeachment effort, cannot prove his non-partisanship in the crisis that is rocking the House.

We understand that the clerk of the Assembly was acting upon the instructions of the governor to enable the 18 lawmakers to impeach the substantive speaker despite their inability to form a quorum.

It has unfolded that the 18 members who “impeached” the principal officers of the Assembly settled for a sum of money with the governor, some of which has been paid to them. Security agencies are also said to have been compromised in the state to side with the “new Speaker.”