The Speaker of the Taraba State House of Assembly, Hon. Istifanus Haruna Gbana, his deputy, Hon. Abel Peter Diah, and other principal officers of the Assembly were Monday sacked from office by their colleagues over allegations of gross misconduct and abuse of office.
The impeachment, THISDAY gathered, was allegedly sponsored by some well placed persons in the state, who had been calling for the immediate confirmation of the acting governor, Garba Umar, as the substantive governor of the state in view of the continued absence of Governor Danbaba Suntai, from the state.
In a letter titled: “Notice of allegation of gross misconduct against the Hon. Speaker, Taraba State House of Assembly, Hon. Isitifanus H. Gbana and the entire Principal Officers,’ and signed by 17 out of the 24 members representing about two-third majority of the members, the aggrieved members accused the Speaker and the principal officers of gross misconduct and unconstitutional acts in the performance of their functions of office.
The principal officers sacked along with Gbana and Diah are the Majority Leader, Hon. Charles Maijankai, and the Deputy Majority Leader, Hon. Ishaya Daniel Gani.
In the details of the allegations, the Speaker was said to have unlawfully deducted the sum of N9, 360,000 out of the N12 million allowance approved and paid to members in December 2012 out of which only N110,000 was given to the members, while the remaining N9.3 million was illegally retained by the Speaker and the principal officers.
The Speaker and the principal officers were also accused of allegedly neglecting to play their roles in calling the financial and general purpose meeting with a view to intimate members of the assembly and presentation of the statement of affairs of the running cost/monies allocated to them.
The aggrieved members also noted that failure to call the financial and general purpose meeting had showcased the Speaker’s lack of financial accountability of all the allocations accrued to the Assembly, which according to them, amount to gross misconduct.
Other allegations levelled against Gbana included lack of dexterity and capacity in discharging the duties of his office thereby creating disaffection, disharmony and favouratism in the running of the assembly which according to them was in contravention of his oath of office as Speaker just as he was accused of sidelining all the members except a ‘selected four’ and running the assembly as his personal property.
Gbana, who had been the Speaker of the assembly since 2005 and was elected Chairman of Speakers’ Forum of Nigeria in 2007, was also alleged to failed to conduct legislative council meeting in gross contravention of the Standing Rules of Taraba State House of Assembly thereby crippling the legislative dealings and competence of the assembly and making the public to look at the assembly as a bunch of incompetent representatives and made them to lose confidence in them.
The motion for the impeachment of Gbana and other principal officers was moved by Hon. Joseph Albasu Kunini of Lau and seconded by Hon. A. A. Jugulde representing Gembu Constituency.
THISDAY investigations reveal that besides the financial impropriety levelled against Gbana, members of the assemblywere not happy with the disdain with which members were being treated by the people of the state as well as the general apathy towards the assembly.
In place of the Gbana, Hon. Haruna Tsokwa from Takum 1 Constituency was unanimously elected as Speaker while Hon. Adamu Tanko Maikarfi representing Gassol 1 was elected as Deputy Speaker while Hon. Joseph Albasu Kunini representing Lau Constituency emerged as Majority Leader of the assembly.
Addressing journalists after being sworn in, Tsokwa said the members were fed up with the leadership of the assembly saying “We were no longer satisfied with the quality of leadership of the assembly and we had to remove the leadership because we want to move the state forward.”
Expressing his gratitude to his colleagues for deeming him fit to lead the assembly at this critical period in the state, the new Speaker reiterated his commitment to operate an open door policy that would accelerate the growth of the state rather than drag it backward.
All efforts to speak reach the impeached Speaker and the other sacked officials proved abortive except the former Deputy Majority Leader, Hon Ishaya Gani, who however declined to comment on the matter saying “for now, we don’t have anything to say.”
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