Posted by By MARIAM ALESHINLOYE-AGBOOLA, Jos on
Just as reinstated Plateau State governor, Chief Joshua Dariye is settling down to work after the Supreme Court verdict, the state's House of Assembly has again commenced impeachment proceedings against him.
•Deputy governor goes underground
Just as reinstated Plateau State governor, Chief Joshua Dariye is settling down to work after the Supreme Court verdict, the state's House of Assembly has again commenced impeachment proceedings against him.
According to the information gathered by Daily Sun, 13 members of the House have already signed an impeachment notice to be served on the governor and had already passed it to the Speaker, Mike Dapialong, for onward submission to the governor.
It was equally gathered that the move to impeach Dariye started as soon as the lawmakers saw that the governor would win the case at the Supreme Court.
In the 24-member House of Assembly, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) now has the majority membership after a by-election held for the 14 seats declared vacant when former members of the House defected to the Action Congress (AC).
Governor Joshua Dariye, before his impeachment, was believed to be the main financier of the Action Congress with all members of his cabinet card carrying members of the party even though he remained in the PDP.
When contacted, Chairman of Information Committee in the House, Paul Damar, confirmed that the impeachment notice had already been passed to the Speaker for onward delivery to the governor.
When contacted, the Chief of Staff to Dariye, Chief Alexander Molwus, said even though they heard about plans to impeach the governor, his boss was yet to receive the notice.
In a related development, the Chairman of PDP in the state, Chief Sylvanus Lot, has urged the State House of Assembly to immediately commence fresh impeachment process against Dariye and to conclude same within one week as it has the constitutional right to do so.
In a statement issued in Jos, he said even though the Supreme Court's ruling returned Dariye to power, the governor lacks the moral right to remain in office.
He said even though his party respects the rule of law, it viewed the Supreme Court's verdict as unfair and lacking in moral consideration, insisting that the court failed to take into account the implications of the verdict on the fragile peace in the state.
He lamented that the judgment of the Supreme Court gave preference to procedure over grave exigency of peace in the state, especially coming barely a month to the end of Dariye's tenure.
Chief Lot urged the House members not to cooperate with Dariye's regime, adding that there should be no legislative backing to any appointments made by Dariye.
Meanwhile, deputy governor of the state, Chief Michael Bot-Mang, may have backed out of Dariye's administration as the governor resumed office on Monday.
Bot-Mang, who had last week said he would act as governor until Dariye resumes office, following the Supreme Court's judgment, was not in the office on Monday when the governor took over, neither did he honour Dariye's invitation for a meeting on Sunday to discuss state matters.
The Chief of Staff to Dariye told Daily Sun that the governor had invited Bot-Mang to a meeting in Government House on Sunday night but when the governor arrived, Bot-Mang was nowhere to be found. He was said to have left a message that he had an important meeting to attend at that time.
Molwus said Bot-Mang did not handover to Dariye, who had reported in his office on Monday, expressing surprise about the deputy governor's action.
However, when Daily Sun visited the deputy governor's house, he was said to be taking a rest.
His Director of Press, George Pam, disclosed that the deputy governor had not been feeling fine and needed to take a rest.
Dariye, who later spoke to workers at Government House, Rayfield, expressed concern over the situation in the state, especially as workers had gone on strike due to non-payment of March and April salaries.
He complained that there was no money in the state treasury, stressing that the hide and seek attitude put up by his deputy would not help matters as they needed to sit down to discuss how the state would move forward.
The governor said he would need to meet with the management of Water Board to discuss how supply would be restored to parts of the state capital and pleaded with the officials of the workers' union to give him two weeks to settle the outstanding salaries.
He reiterated that all appointments made by Bot-Mang were now null and void, while the Plateau Radio Television Corporation would now be headed by Chief Leo Keyen. Also, he said that the Plateau Publishing Corporation would now be headed by Haris Dawurang.
Dariye advised all local government chairmen, who were relieved of their posts to go back to work and the members of the caretaker committees he appointed just before he was impeached to also go back to their stations. He said even if they would be there for only one week, it would be recorded that they were reinstated.