How official vehicles, others led to Gombe deputy speaker’s ouster

Issues relating to the provision of official cars and other allowances triggered the impeachment of the Deputy Speaker of Gombe State House of Assembly, Shuaibu Adama Haruna, Daily Trust has gathered.

Our correspondent reports that delay in the provision of official vehicles to the 24 members of the State House of Assembly created a rift between them and executive arm led by Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya.

Of the 24 members in the house; the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has 19 while the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has five members.

Since the inauguration of the assembly on June 14, the members have been using their personal vehicles for both official and private functions, despite several pleas to the governor to purchase new vehicles for them. The lawmakers have indicated their preference for SUVs, it was gathered.

Sources in the assembly told our correspondent that the lawmakers have virtually approved all requests forwarded to them by the governor to placate him to buy into their demand for the brand new SUVs.

One of the sources, who pleaded not to be named, said it was because of this that “the lawmakers screened and confirmed 21 commissionernominees, special advisers and also approved a supplementary budget he sent to the house.

“But the governor refused to buyin and also declined to approve their other requests tabled before him.

“As such, the members are still using their personal vehicles for official functions. However, they learnt that he has already purchased new official vehicles for the newly inaugurated commissioners which made them angry.”

He added that, the legislators were still trying all possible channels to resolve their differences with the executive before it became public knowledge.

Following their failure to meet the governor, the lawmakers irrespective of party differences, held a meeting where they unanimously agreed to boycott all the functions and events hosted by the governor until he provided the vehicles.

It was gathered that it was following the resolution that all the members were conspicuously absent when the governor launched 50 new buses for the state transport company, Gombe Line. It was alleged that the former deputy speaker leaked the information to the governor.

Our correspondent reports that the last straw was last Saturday’s inauguration of the 21 commissioners and members of the state executive council, which all the members boycotted.

Shuaibu Haruna was the lone member that attended the inauguration, an action that angered the other members. This, it was gathered resulted in his impeachment on Tuesday and replacement with Siddi Buba (Kwami West) during a plenary presided by the Speaker, Abubakar Sadiq Kurba (Yamaltu West).

When contacted, the Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Mr Tulfukut Kardi, said the erstwhile speaker was impeached based on internal issues of the assembly, “that is not for public consumption for now.”

“We will inform the public at the right time the reason we impeached the deputy speaker,” Kardi said.

Also, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Communication and Strategy, Anas Ibrahim Kubalu, said the impeachment of the embattled deputy speaker had nothing to do with the relationship between Governor Yahaya and the house.

“Sections 4, 5 and 6 of the 1999 Constitution as amended have given the three arms of government power to operate independently.

“As such, what transpired in the assembly is solely their in-house matter that has nothing to do with the governor because there is a cordial working relationship between the governor and the lawmakers,” Kubalu said.

He added that very soon the governor will procure official vehicles for the lawmakers, commissioners and advisers, “all the talk about rift between Governor Yahaya and the legislators is just baseless rumour,” he added.