Society Gists

The Nasarawa State house of assembly on Thursday served an impeachment notice on governor of the state, Alhaji Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, who is under fire for 16 allegations rounded up as “gross misconduct”.

All attempts to serve him the notice in person since Monday, when the house commenced impeachment proceedings against him, were unsuccessful. Sensing that Al-Makura could act like Murtala Nyako, the recently-impeached governor of Adamawa State who travelled out of the state to evade being served with notice of impeachment, Alhaji Musa Mohammed, speaker of the assembly directed the clerk, Mr. Ego Abashe, to serve the governor through a substituted means should he remain unreachable in person.

“In the event that His Excellency, Govervor Tanko Al-Makura, cannot be reached for service, the clerk is directed to serve him with the impeachment notice through the media,” he said.

On Wednesday, thousands of youths had trooped to the state house of assembly to protest the attempt to oust the governor. Still, the notice of impeachment, which was endorsed by 20 of the 24 lawmakers, was published in the newspapers.

If the impeachment scales through, Al-Makura will be the seventh governor to be impeached under the current democratic dispensation. Al-Makura, the only governor elected on the platform of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in 2011, is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), following the merger of opposition parties.

The 20 members spoiling for his impeachment are all members of the opposing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The other four who refrained from signing the impeachment notice are the only APC lawmakers at the assembly.