Twelve members of the Kebbi State House of Assembly have served a notice of impeachment on Governor Saidu Usman Dakingari for alleged gross misconduct in the performance of functions of his office.
The same 12 of 24 members of the Assembly had on Tuesday claimed to have impeached Speaker Mohammed Shalla and deputy Mohammed Ja’afaru. A former Speaker, Habib Jega, who was impeached in a controversial manner in November 2014, was then “elected” speaker.
The 12 legislators, in a signed notice Wednesday, listed six impeachable offences against the governor.
They are:
•That Governor Sa’idu Dakingari committed grave violation of the provision of Section 5(1)(a) of the Kebbi State Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Bureau Law,2006 in that the Chairman of the Bureau is to be a retired Civil Servant, but the Governor appointed a serving Permanent Secretary/Solicitor General of the State Ministry of justice, Barr Aminu Usman as Chairman of the Bureau;
•That the governor committed gross misconduct by accessing and obtaining a loan facility to the tune of N2 billion from Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Support Fund set up by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) allegedly without obtaining the necessary confirmation of 2/3 majority of the Assembly, which was opposed by nine of 24 members;
•That the Governors continues work with unelected Local Government Councils in the State whose tenure in office already expired on or about the 18th September,2014, two years after Oath of office as provided by Section 18(1) of Kebbi State Local Government Law, 2008 and thereby committed a gross misconduct;
•That between the period of January 2015 – April 2015, the governor allegedly misappropriated the sum of N1,800,862,672.00 from the State Government funds in the name of General Election 2015 even when there is no provision for that expenditure in the Appropriation Law 2015;
•The Governor,alleged misappropriated the sum of N965,000, 000.00 in the name of the official visits of Mr President, Vice President and First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between November 2014 to March, 2015 and that Mr Vice President and First Lady did not make any official visit to Kebbi State within the said period thereby committed gross misconduct;
•That the governor issued the renovation and furnishing of the Presidential Lodge and other government lodges at the cost of N558, 560, 416.00 to unknown contractor in September 2011 and thereafter within two months period that was between October 2014 – November, 2014, the governor alleged wrongly inflated the cost of renovation and furnishing to the tune of N1, 347, 373, 906.54k.That the contract sum was increased by the sum of N788, 813, 490.54k thereby committed misconduct.
But the governor, in his response to the development, through the Secretary to the State Government, Garba Kamba, said the action of the members is Illegal and unconstitutional.
“By this very act, the purported members have pre-empted the decision of the Kebbi State High Court,” Mr. Kamba said. “These members aim to cause disaffection and truncate the smooth transition of government following the recent election,” he said.
He added that the government would continue to recognise Mr. Shalla as Speaker of the Kebbi Assembly.
