I m p e a c h m e n t Jonathan meets Nasarawa lawmakers

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday held a meeting behind closed doors with six officials of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, a day after the lawmakers took a critical step in the process of impeaching Governor Umaru Al-Makura.The legislators were led to the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja by Speaker Musa Ahmed Mohammed.The PDP-dominated Nasarawa legislature […]

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday held a meeting behind closed doors with six officials of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, a day after the lawmakers took a critical step in the process of impeaching Governor Umaru Al-Makura.
The legislators were led to the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja by Speaker Musa Ahmed Mohammed.
The PDP-dominated Nasarawa legislature is executing a process for the removal of Al-Makura over allegations of gross misconduct.
On Wednesday, the assembly passed a resolution asking the state Chief Judge to set up a 7-member committee to investigate the allegations against Al-Makura. The CJ is yet to constitute the panel, the reportof which would determine the fate of the governor.
No official announcement was made on what was discussed at yesterday’s two-hour meeting between Jonathan and the lawmakers, but Daily Trust learnt that the impeachment matter was the subject of discussion.
A Villa security source said the president’s intervention was aimed at slowing down the process of Al-Makura’s removal.
A member of the Nasarawa Assembly, who did not attend the meeting but was privy to events surrounding the impeachment bid, said there have been talks of pulling the brakes in order to avoid further violence.
The impeachment plot had ignited violent protests in the state, leading to the death of 2 persons last week.
Speaker Mohammed, who spoke to journalists after the meeting yesterday, said it was a private forum.
Asked if the assembly was under pressure to back-pedal on the bid to impeach Governor Al-Makura, the speaker said he did not have the mandate of the House to speak on the issue.
“Who is pressurising who?” he asked. “This is a private meeting. I am here to see Mr President for a private meeting. I do not have the mandate of the assembly to address the press.
“We have the chairman of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly Committee on Information who we all agreed should be talking to the press on our behalf.”
But the House of Assembly’s spokesman Mohammed Ibaku, when contacted last night, said he had no information on the meeting. “It is a delegation of the principal officers that met with the president. When the speaker makes the report of the meeting, I will speak to the press.”
Deputy national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Uche Secondus, was seen at the Villa around the time the meeting was held, though it was not clear if he attended.
Secondus told journalists the meeting was merely a consultation with the president, but he declined to answer questions on whether Al-Makura’s impeachment was discussed.
“I came in here before members of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly. It was a consultation meeting with Mr President,” he said.
Asked if Jonathan would intervene in the process of impeaching the Nasarawa governor, Secondus said: “I cannot tell you whatever, but we are consulting.”
When contacted, the House Majority Leader, Godiya Akwashiki, who attended the meeting with Jonathan, only restated what Speaker Mohammed said. “It was a private meeting between the president and principal members of the House, who are of the PDP. It was a family meeting,” he told Daily Trust by telephone last night.
But House Minority Leader Tanko Maikatako, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who was not at the meeting, said his feeling was that “the president presided over a meeting to lead to the final resolution of the crisis in the state.”
He added: “I don’t see the president presiding over a meeting that will lead to fueling the crisis in Nasarawa State. Mr. President is a lover of peace and I am sure he intervened to save Nasarawa from the crisis. It is a meeting that will bring about the way forward, I think. The president can’t tell them to come back to Nasarawa and fuel to the fire.”