Adamawa Assembly urges probe of govt, declares 3 seats vacant
Speaker of Adamawa State House of Assembly yesterday urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate financial transactions by the state government and declared the seats of three legislators vacant.
At a plenary yesterday, the Speaker, Ahmadu Fintiri, referred to Section 108 of the Constitution which he said empowered him to declare the seats vacant for defecting from the PDP and contesting elections on new political platforms.
Those affected include Adamu Usman representing Toungo who defected from the PDP to the APC, Hamman Tukur Yettusuri representing Jada/ Mbulo and Umar Abdulkarim representing Nassarawo/Binyeri both of whom defected to the PDM.
The three members are part of the nine lawmakers who conducted parallel sittings in Government House and elected Jerry Kumdisi as the new speaker.
The House also passed a resolution directing Governor Bala Nggilari to reinstate the Director General of the State Bureau for Public Procurement, Bello Umar, who was allegedly removed because he queried some suspicious transactions by the state government.
The deputy Speaker, Kwamoti Laori, had raised a motion alleging that the government procured 50 Hilux vans and two refurbished bullet proof Lexus jeeps at the cost of N400 million and N180 million respectively without due process.
He said investigations showed that the actual cost of the jeeps is N35 million each as against N90 million.
Phineas Elisha, spokesman of Governor Nggilari, said the state government does not recognise Fintiri as speaker since the election of Kumdisi.
“We got the report about the change of leadership in the House of Assembly. Jerry Kumdisi is the new Speaker and Abdulkarim Umar is his deputy. The resolution passed under the former speaker is not legitimate and the government will not respect it”, he said.
He noted that the governor has the right to remove or redeploy the Director General or any appointee.