To forestall his impeachment, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State has ordered the arrest of the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Sanusi Rikiji; his deputy, Muhammad Gumi; Majority Leader, Isah Abdulmumini, and Chief Whip, Abdullahi Dansadau.
Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested them in Gusau, the state capital, on Tuesday.
They were immediately taken to Abuja.
Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Mannir Gidan-Jaja, who disclosed this in Gusau, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately intervene “to save our democracy”.
He said: “We all know there is separation of powers. Nobody said the speaker and other officers stole anything so, why were they arrested by security agents? The executive should not do anything that will lead to serious crisis in this state”.
Gidan-Jaja also disclosed that the House had listed six impeachable offences committed by Yari, citing them as reasons lawmakers are pushing for his impeachment.
He accused the governor of misappropriating billions of naira from the state coffers.
According to Gidan-Jaja, money allegedly misappropriated by Yari included N11 billion bailout fund, N1 billion agricultural loan released to the state by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and “corrupt abuse of local government funds”.
He also accused the governor of failing to remit funds deducted for pensions and gratuities to pension fund administrators as provided by law.
The governor had also ignored a resolution of the Assembly not to appoint Murtala Jangebe as Chairman of the state Universal Basic Education Board.
He said that the Assembly had passed a vote of no confidence in Jangebe, after he was allegedly found to have misappropriated over N1 billion belonging to the board in 2014.
He accused the governor of frequent foreign trips which have had negative impact on the day-to-day running of government, apart from imposing financial burden on the state.
While condemning the arrest of the Speaker, his Deputy, Majority Leader, Chief Whip and supporting staff of the Assembly by DSS operatives, he described the action as a clear interference in the functions of the legislature as enshrined in the Constitution.
He said: “We are also demanding the unconditional release of our principal officers who are currently under detention with the DSS in Abuja”.
