Adamu Usman
The impeached Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Adamu Usman, has said he is still the real head of the House of Assembly, faulting the impeachment carried out on Tuesday, by 18 of the 27 lawmakers, the Sunday Punch reports.
It will be recalled that Usman was impeached and replaced with Isa Kawu of Bida 1 state constituency in the wake of impeachment move against the governor of the state, Babangida Aliyu, with the lawmakers accusing Usman of shielding the governor.
Speaking to Sunday Punch, Usman said he had approached a court to obtain an order restraining the lawmakers from proceeding with any impeachment process against him but the lawmakers flouted the order.
He said: “My removal is unconstitutional, illegal, null and void. The entire process was illegal. I have the order and the order was served; I joined the Police, the Director of State Security Service, I joined the members of the House of Assembly including the Clerk of the House.”
According to him, the action of the lawmakers, who impeached him, was baseless, claiming that they had an interest in removing him.
“There is no allegation that I know of made against me; there is no mention of gross misconduct or any other thing. Usually in our parliamentary proceedings, most of the principal officers are usually impeached against the background of financial misconduct or otherwise. As regards my purported impeachment, they have nothing against me. As a matter of fact, all of them confirmed that I had done nothing wrong.
“Then, I wonder why should they impeach me? For the past three years I have led the House without any drama; even if I have done something wrong, I expect that, as colleagues, they would have reprimanded me but urge me to carry on. Even late last year, a vote of confidence was passed on me by the same honourable members. I feel sad because the same set of people wanted me to be removed. Why would they want to change the House leadership without reasons? I was not in the chamber when they moved the motion for my impeachment,” Usman said.
Speaking further, Usman denied allegations that he was working for Gov. Aliyu, adding that he had never been for or against the governor since he became the speaker of the House.
He said further: “In any case, the issue of pro-governor should not necessitate the current parliamentary crisis. To me, it’s just semantics. The unfortunate thing is with people’s misconception. In Nigeria, all the state houses of assembly operate as co-partners but most times the legislature is subservient to the executive because the executive controls the funds.”
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