Nasarawa State Assembly Not Influenced By GEJ – Nasarawa PDP

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Nasarawa State chapter, defended the president's name from recent accusation by the All Progressives Congress, (APC) that Jonathan trying to impeach the Governor of the State, Tanko Al-Makura.

Mr. Yunana Illiya, the party's chairman in the state, told the reporters yesterday that these accusations was totally laughable, and unfounded.

Yunana Illiya said: “It is unfortunate that people are bringing sentiments into (the impeachment issue). What (the lawmakers) have done is their constitutional right, to probe the happenings in the state, and if there are areas where they have discovered irregularities, they have the right to inform the governor of these grey areas and ask him to clear himself”.

He continued and said that the State Assembly was just exercising the power granted to them by the constitution and now checking the Governor's track record to see if he had adhered to the rules or not.

Illiya noted that Governor Al-Makura had nothing to fear if he adhered to the rules.

“If the allegation against him is proven wrong, he will continue in his office as the governor of Nasarawa State. But for somebody to say that the (Presidential) Villa or the PDP at the national level is responsible for this, I think they are being economical with the truth,” he said.

On the allegation that the President was only targeting opposition governors, Mr. Illiya said: “We are all aware of what happened between 2005 to 2006 – the then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration – when there were cases like this, where the Plateau State governor was impeached; that was between PDP and PDP.

"(The same) happened in Bayelsa. It depends on the level of violation that we are working with. “If some other state assemblies are rubber stamps of their executive, Nasarawa State assembly is not a rubber stamp.

"Even in an assessment that was carried out between 2012 and 2013 of state legislatures, Nasarawa State was ranked among the best state assembly in the country.

"They have been able to pass bills and motions well ahead of other states. So, for people to judge the assembly, saying it is doing this because the governor is from APC – that is very far from (the truth). My dad used to say, 'This too shall pass',” he said.

Al-Makura was one of the PDP founding members in the State in 1998 and defected to Congress for Progressive Change after losing in the 2011 PDP primary elections.

He won the election, defeating incumbent governor Aliyu Akwe-Doma of the PDP. Al-Makura, who is now an APC member, is on the verge of leaving office after the PDP-dominated Assembly of his state accused the governor of gross misconduct.

Source: Legit.ng