The Kogi State House of Assembly on Wednesday
commenced the process to remove the state Deputy Governor, Elder Simon Achuba,
from office.
The governor and the deputy for some times now have
been having a cold war which has seemingly paralysed the office of the deputy
governor in the last three years.
However, on Wednesday, the Majority Leader of the
assembly, Hon. Abdullahi Bello of the All Progressives Congress (APC),
representing Ajaokuta state constituency, read the petition of the removal
before lawmakers on the floor of the assembly.
The lawmakers, however, hastened their petition on
three grounds of criminal indulgence, financial misappropriation and
non-performance.
The majority leader, who affirmed that 21 out of
the 25 lawmakers signed the petition, said the allegations, actions and
utterances of the deputy governor amounted to gross misconduct.
He cited Section 188 of 1999 Constitution, and
thereafter, prayed the assembly to commence investigation towards the move to
remove the deputy governor.
The assembly Speaker, Kolawole Matthew, agreed to
the prayers in the petition, and asked that the petition be served on the
deputy governor to respond within the 14-day time frame of the law.
Achuba, last week, at a press conference, had
alleged that his life was in danger.
According to him, from all information available to
him, he suspected strongly that the governor had mobilised his government to
attack him.
He said: "This I want to put to the public and
also draw the attention of the Inspector General of Police (IG), the Director
of State Security Service and other law enforcement agents that if anything
happens to me and my family or any of my staff, the governor should be held
responsible.
"You cannot by force continue to rule a people
you are called to serve, and it is on this note that I want to appeal to law
enforcement agents and the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to beam
his light on Kogi State because of the level of insecurity currently affecting the
state.
“The insecurity in the state today and the fear of
the people of the state is not about arm robbery, it's not even about kidnapping
anymore or ritual killing, rather, it is about the gunmen of the governor who
terrorise the public without restraint."
Achuba noted that as a deputy governor, he has been
traveling for the past two years since 2017 but the governor has refused to pay
him his allowances.
"My salary is N385, 000. How can the governor
assumed that I could run the office of the deputy governor if there are no
other money aside my salary?
"If you have been given the opportunity to
serve at any level and you are exhibiting behaviour like this, how do you
expect people to describe you after you leave office?” he asked.
He lamented that his problem with the governor
started right from the inception of the administration when he (the governor)
failed to pay workers their salary.
The deputy governor said his position was that
salary should be paid to workers because they work for it, but unfortunately,
despite the large money Bello's administration was getting, he refused to pay
workers their salary.
He also alleged that in the last three years, the
governor cannot point at any single project embarked upon by his
administration.
"Leaders should not be a master who boost; you
should be a leader who is ready to serve the people. I believe that whoever has
the opportunity to be a governor should be humble in all honesty and not going
about fighting people even when the fight is unnecessary and avoidable,"
he said.
Meanwhile, Kogi Patriotic Group has berated the impending
decision of the state House Assembly to remove the deputy governor over his
revelation of corrupt practices in the state.
A statement by the spokesperson of the group, Abdul
Abdul, issued yesterday described the decision of the assembly members to
embark on “such undemocratic act as an evidence of rubber stamp and working
with the state government to perpetrate corrupt tendencies.”
He said the state lawmakers, rather than embark on
investigation of the grievous allegations of financial misappropriation against
the state government, has resorted to witch-hunting the deputy governor against
the corrupt tendencies of the state and its officials.
Abdul alleged that the decision of the state
lawmakers was in line with their plans to install the governor's Chief of Staff
as the deputy governor so as to create immunity to unleash the thuggery
activities on the people of the state.
He urged the lawmakers not to embark on such “illegality
capable of overheating the polity towards the November governorship election in
the state.”
Abdul alleged that the action of the lawmakers was
a glaring collusion with the state government, having under played their
oversight functions of scrutinising the books of the state, and therefore
creating room for wanton fraud and financial profligacy.
He described the lawmakers as inexperienced set of
people, “who are only interested in their personal welfare rather than the
state and its people.”
Abdul, therefore, advised the deputy governor, Simon
to immediately proceed to the court to halt the current move at removing him
from office.
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