19th September, 2012
Tension is high in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, Northeast Nigeria, over the insistence of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, controlled House of Assembly to impeach the Deputy Governor, Alhaji Sani Abubakar Danladi.
P.M.NEWS correspondent in Jalingo reports that as early as 7.30 a.m. Wednesday, armed policemen were drafted to the streets of Jalingo and strategic locations of the town to stave off protest against the action of the state Assembly.
The tension in Jalingo was occasioned by the emergency sitting of the lawmakers last night to decide on the impeachment in spite of the appeal by well meaning indigenes of the state to the Assembly men to suspend the impeachment.
The lawmakers had on 3 September, given the deputy governor 14 days to respond to an earlier impeachment notice served during an emergency sitting during which they directed the state Chief Judge to set up a seven-man panel to investigate the allegation in the impeachment article within seven days.
It was learnt that during their sitting last night, the 19 PDP members in the Assembly said they were not satisfied with the response of the deputy governor.
P.M.NEWS also gathered that apart from the Assembly sitting last night, the members in collaboration with the state government allegedly hired some PDP members from the six local government areas that make up the Northern district of the state to stage a solidarity protest at the state Assembly by 10 a.m. today, to justify the action of the lawmakers.
It was gathered that some angry youths who have accused the lawmakers of dissipating energy on impeaching instead of legislating on matters that can uplift the standard of the state were also planning to protest at the Assembly to register their displeasure.
Meanwhile, a source told P.M.NEWS this morning that the national secretary of the PDP in Abuja who had earlier directed the state Governor Danbaba Danfulani Suntai and the lawmakers to drop the impeachment notice served on the deputy governor, had summoned Suntai, the PDP lawmakers in the Assembly and the state PDP executives to the party’s headquarters in Abuja.
—Ben Adadji/Jalingo