— Marwa moves to take Nyako’s job
By Ibrahim Abdul’ Aziz and Muazu Abari, Yola
Stakeholders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), including serving ministers, have stormed Yola, the Adamawa state capital, to drum support for the members of the House of Assembly to speed up the impeachment of Governor Murtala Nyako and his deputy, Barrister Bala Ngillari.
The stakeholders held a special meeting at the weekend in Yola after which they said the impeachment would usher in a new era of developments that had been denied the state since the inception of the Nyako administration.
Minister of Youth Development, Mr Boni Haruna, alleged that the Nyako administration plundered the resources of the state “without any tangible project to show commensurate with the monies the accrued to the state since 2007.”
Similarly, a former Minister of State, Mr Idi Hong, described the Nyako administration as “a cankerworm that should be done away with.”
The party chairman in the state, Chief Joel Madaki, said Nyako should have been impeached long before now, adding, “Nyako has converted state funds to personal and he must account for it.”
Amongst those present were Boni Haruna, Zainab Maina, Sen. Bello Tukur, Dr Ahmed Modibbo, Wilberforce Juta, Dr Umar Ardo, MC Tahir, Mr John Elias, Dan Suleiman, Medan Teneke, Idi Hong, Adamu Modibbo, Walga and a host of others.
But in a swift reaction, the immediate past chairman of the party (PDP), Alhaji Mijinyawa Umaru Kugama, described the PDP stakeholders’ meeting as “a gathering of anti-democracy elements who are in desperate mission to topple an elected governor for personal interests.”
Kugama, now an APC chieftain, had said Boni Haruna, who ruled the state for eight years, “without any tangible development to show for it should have buried his head in shame for inflicting poverty on the people he claimed he loved.”
Meanwhile, a former Military Administrator of Lagos state, Gen Buba Marawa (rtd), has stormed the state to jostle for the job of Governor Nyako.
His spokesperson, Mr. Musa Kamale, disclosed this during a chat with journalists in Yola, the state capital.
The retired army general, who had run for the office of the governor in the past, stormed the state with his associates last week.
Kamale said: “He has come to re-strategise in case the impeachment scales through. No one knows for sure if it will scale through, but it is better to have a plan.
“If truly the impeachment is going to have headway, it should by September. So as a politician, Marwa is here to strategise.”
He said his principal was holding meetings with five people from each local government who would vote in the primaries.
Kamale added: “The dividend of democracy has eluded the people of Adamawa for the past fifteen years. Poverty has become pandemic and you can see potholes everywhere, as if we are not in Nigeria.
“The issue is not whether you like Marwa or not, but the question is what is the way out of this present predicament we found ourselves.
“Marwa has done creditably well somewhere else before, so he will not lack vision to steer the people of the state to a greener land.”
It would be recalled that the House of Assembly had served impeachment notices on Nyanko and his deputy, a move which was blocked by the judiciary last Thursday.
