By Aideloje Ojo
Minna
Niger state House of Assembly yesterday walked out the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Dr. Ibraheem Dooba, after refusing to disclose the source of his information confirming to journalists that his boss, Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, had sent a list of commissioner-nominees to the Assembly which turned out to be false.
The chief press secretary was reportedly summoned by the lawmakers over media report that the list of commissioner-nominees had been sent to the Assembly since Thursday, last week and confirmed by the governor’s spokesman.
Speaking in an interview with journalists after the closed door meeting of the legislators with Dooba, the Speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Ahmed Marafa Guni, said “as representatives of the people, we decided to invite the Chief Press Secretary to come and explain to us the source of his information; we drew his attention to so many mistakes that he had made in past which had damaged the image of government.”
He added that “but in his usual stubbornness, he refused to tell us the source of his information and we asked him to leave and walked him out of the meeting.”
The Speaker said the false information dished out by the Chief Press Secretary on the transmission of list of commissioner-nominees to the Assembly was embarrassing to the lawmakers and the state in general, adding that “we have been receiving calls from the people on the stories in newspapers.”
Minority Leader of the House, Hon. Bello Agwara, who also spoke on the outcome of the meeting with Dooba which lasted for about 40 minutes, said it was the responsibility of the Assembly to protect the image of the state government and regretted that the CPS had made lots of mistakes to the detriment of the good image of the state.
In an interview with journalists at the Assembly Complex, the Chief Press Secretary explained that he was invited by the Assembly over the list of commissioner-nominees which he said had been brought to the House.
He said: “Actually, there was a mistake because the list has not reached them. I told them that I actually confirmed the story in the papers that the list was out, but, unfortunately, there was nothing like that and I have apologised to them for the misinformation.”