Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero has congratulated the new leadership of the Kaduna state House of Assembly led by Shehu Tahir and his Deputy, Peter Adamu, in spite of the crisis rocking the Kaduna parliament, following last Tuesday’s impeachment of the former Speaker, Usman Gangara and other principal officers by 19 out of 34 members of the house.
In a congratulatory letter personally signed by the governor to the new principal officers of the House, Governor Yero commended the members for the maturity exhibited in resolving their issues amicably.
According to him, ‘the maturity exhibited by the members is an indication of the State Assembly’s determination in the quest for the stabilization of peace and advancement of democracy in the state’.
He assured the new house leadership of his administration’s readiness to cooperate with them in implementing policies and programmes that would improve the living standards of the citizens of the state and urged the new Speaker and other principal officers to work hard towards ensuring unity in the House which according to him is critical in discharging their mandate of formulating laws that will guarantee safety and development in the State.
He further reaffirmed his readiness to respect the independence of the Legislature in line with the doctrine of Separation of Powers as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
The former Speaker, Kaduna, Hon. Usman Gangara, from Giwa East Constituency and his deputy, Dr. Dogara Mato from Lere Constituency were impeached by 19 out 34 members of the Assembly on Tuesday 24th September.
The former speaker, his deputy and six other principal officers of the House were all absent when the impeachment proceeding presided over by Hon. Philemon Usman was carried out.
19 out of 26 eligible voters from 34 members that were present during the session endorsed the impeachment.
A new speaker was immediately elected.
Hon. Shehu Usman Tahir representing Giwa West Constituency was elected while Peter Adamu representing Kagarko Constituency was elected Deputy Speaker.
The aggrieved members had last month issued the former speaker and other principal officers of the house a 30-day ultimatum to resign on grounds of incompetency and alleged gross misconduct.
A member of the House loyal to the embattled speaker, who craved for anonymity, told Channels Television that the impeachment of the speaker and his deputy was done with the encouragement and support of the executive arm of government on grounds of not being loyal to the state government and the Vice President.
The crisis rocking Kaduna State House of Assembly further deepened on Wednesday when the new speaker, Shehu Usman Tahir appointed new principal officers.
For fear of any break down of law and order in the assembly, armed policemen were drafted earlier to secure the premises. However, the 19 members loyal to the new speaker defied yesterday’s pronouncement by the impeached speaker, Usman Gangara who claimed he was still in-charge, to arrive the assembly premises at about 9am and commenced sitting by 10am.
The sitting which was peaceful lasted for only 30 minutes.
The main agenda of the day was the selection of new principal officers by the 19 members loyal to the new speaker whilst the other 16 members sympathetic to the former speaker stayed away.
Umaru Yunusa representing Lere East was appointed the Majority leader, Philemon Usman from Makera Constituency as the Chief Whip and Bala Yunus of All Progressives Congress (APC) representing ,Tudun-Wada Constituency emerged as the Minority leader.