Breaking: Plateau Assembly Speaker Ayuba Abok impeached, replaced
The Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Hon Abok Ayuba, has been reportedly impeached.
Abok was purportedly impeached on Thursday by 8 out of the 24 members of the Assembly and replaced by Yakubu Sanda of Pengana State Constituency of Bassa LGA.
It was learned that the “emergency” sitting was presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Saleh Yipmong, who led the eight members under the heavy presence of armed security personnel to the Assembly Complex as early as 6am to carry out the act.
The lawmakers had attempted to impeach the speaker on Wednesday night but could not succeed and had to return on Thursday morning to perfect the assignment.
However, a member of the House, Nanbol Daniel, (PDP, Langtang North Central) has said that the impeachment was null and void, claiming that only 8 out of the 24 members met, which he said did not follow the house rules on impeachment of speaker and deputy speaker.
Also speaking, Musa Agah, representing Rukuba/Irigwe constituency in the Assembly, who confirmed the development and described the action of the lawmakers as “the height of illegality”
“It was this morning that some few members rushed to the Plateau state House of Assembly as early as 6 am. You know the state House of Assembly is made up of 24 members and the constitutional requirement for the removal of the Speaker is 2/3 majority which is 16 members.
“So, eight lawmakers rushed to the Assembly this morning against the House rules that says that plenary commences from 9 am and even if there is going to be an extraordinary sitting, the Speaker is the one who is empowered to convene but that did not happen.
“When some of us got wind of what was happening, we rushed to the Assembly complex only to discover that Security operatives had barricaded everywhere. Some of us were stopped from gaining access to the Assembly complex while they also harassed others,” Agah fumed.
Periscope International reports that Abok has been having a running battle with Governor Simon Lalong and his supporters over comments he made in August on a live television program in which he criticized the Governor’s handling of the killings in the state.
Earlier in the week, a petition surfaced on social media by a group under the aegis of Youths Rights Against Corruption (YRAC) accusing the speaker of corruption.
The group claimed that it had submitted a copy of the petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against the Speaker accusing him of several allegations including abuse of office and financial misappropriation.
The group also demanded that the speaker should immediately step down from his position pending the completion of investigation.
Executive Director, YRAC Comrade Abednego Musa, signed the petition titled “Petition Against Plateau State House of Assembly Speaker, Nuhu Abok Ayuba, On Gross Financial Misconduct, Criminal Breach Of Public Trust And Abuse Of Office”.
However, upon close scrutiny, the said petition turned out to be a forged copy of a petition written to the EFCC against the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, which Abok’s traducers did a poor job of “copy and paste” by repeating the Lagos House of Assembly’s name in their forged copy.
