The Commissioner for Information in Nassarawa State, believes that the panel that was constituted by the Chief Judge to look into the Nassarawa impeachment matters was in compliance with the requirement of the constitution.
Mr Hamza Muhammed said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, on Thursday, where he spoke about the Nassarawa impeachment debacle.
The Commissioner for Information, said that he would not want to join issues with the Legal Practitioner, John Matthew who had alleged the wrong doings by the Chief Judge, because he was confident of the legality of the panel.
“I don’t want to join issues with John Mathew because this panel is a panel that has been constituted by the Chief Judge in compliance with the requirement of the constitution,” he said.
He stated that if John Mathew or the House of Assembly had any issue with the composition of the panel, they had only one option and that was for them to go to court as the Supreme Court had opened the door.
Mr Hamza Muhammed noted that sub section 1 and 9 of section 188 in the Nigerian Constitution states that “if there is any reach in the process of the removal of a Governor, you can seek the court’s interpretation as to whether there is substantial compliance or not and if in any case the court interprets that as a substantial compliance then the court would give you a redress.”
He further said that when the impeachment notice was unveiled, the judiciary was on strike and as such there was no way the Governor could seek a redress over the noncompliance of certain sections of 188 that the House of Assembly refused to comply with; and when he appeared before the panel, he made it clear that he had misgivings about the noncompliance of the Assembly members and the Speaker especially, because subsection 2 of 188 requires the Speaker, after receiving the notice of allegation, to serve each member of the House of Assembly and the holder of the office.
He also alleged that the PDP rally that was held by the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, at Lafia, to support the members of the House of Assembly was aimed at unleashing mayhem on Nassarawa State.
He tried to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the reported clash between supporters of the opposing parties, which resulted in deaths. He stressed that there was no clash and that the death that was said to have occurred during the rally did not arise from the rally, as the people who died were killed in their farms and were hacked to death by the supporters of the PDP party.
