There was celebration in Aso Rock today as the Adamawa State House of Assembly impeached the loquacious state Governor, Murtala Nyako.
After deliberations made by the seven-man impeachment panel, eighteen out of the 24 members of the Assembly voted to impeach the governor for his alleged gross misconduct.
However, deputy governor, Bala Ngilari, who was also up for impeachment, submitted his letter of resignation this morning.
According to the constitution, if the governor is absent and his deputy resigns, the Speaker of the House has to become the acting governor of the state.
As a result, Assembly Speaker, Ahmadu Fintiri, will be sworn in as the new governor today.
Before his impeachment, there were efforts to salvage his position as former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar and Malam Nuhu Ribadu have relocated to Yola since the acting Chief Judge appointed a seven-man probe panel to look into the allegations by the honourable members. While Nuhu Ribadu had been in his home state over a week ago, Atiku Abubakar had to also cut short his lesser-hadji trip – Umrah and returned to Yola to quell the fire of impeachment from consuming Nyako.
It is also believed that two former heads of state have swung into action to save Nyako from the impeachment. He was taken along to the Presidential Villa in Abuja, where they pleaded for forgiveness for his ‘sins’ which led to the impeachment saga.
President Jonathan, however, did not commit himself. Rather, he chastised the ‘bad boy’ to change from his bad ways. He specifically told the visiting generals that their ward should retract his ‘satanic memo’ to the Northern governors before anything could be done on his behalf. The two former heads of state in the spirit of es-pirit de corp, a military slogan for comradeship, appealed to Jonathan to save the face of the former Naval Chief and Deputy Chief of Defence Staff.
Prominent traditional rulers in the state led by the Lamido of Adamawa, Dr Barkindo Aliyu Musdafa, have also lent their weights on the impeachment by appealing to the powers that be in Abuja to help douse the political tension which the impeachment saga has hoisted on the state.