Taiwo Popoola
A parallel faction of lawmakers has emerged in the Zamfara State House of Assembly.
Ten members of the House purportedly suspended by the impeached Speaker, Bilyaminu Ismail Moriki, for voicing out their constituents’ security challenges have created a parallel, House of Assembly, describing their suspension as illegal, misleading and unfounded.
“How can a speaker impeached by 18 out of 24 members suspend other members? they queried.
The lawmakers who reinforced the selection of Bashar Aliyu Gummi as Speaker when the whole House impeached Speaker Moriki early last year for alleged high handedness and misconduct among others, sat in Gusau on Wednesday to take far reaching decisions on matters of public interest.
The factional Speaker, Bashar Aliyu Gummi, representing Gummi 1 State Constituency, after deliberations that lasted for about two hours, announced that the members have issued a one-month ultimatum to Governor Dauda Lawal, within which all issues surrounding armed banditry, kidnapping and other heinous crimes must be resolved.
The lawmakers, who cut across political parties, especially the APC and the PDP, lamented that the government seemed to be comfortable with the unfortunate security situation in the state.
They accused Governor Lawal of spending huge sums of money on trivial matters while poverty and insecurity have taken over the whole 14 local government areas of the state, at a time the state government refused to sympathise with victims of bandit attacks.
They recalled that their purported suspension followed their refusal to remain silent while the carnage by bandits continued unabated in the state.
The lawmakers urged the state government to change its attitude of not supporting security agents who sacrifice their lives in the defence of citizens by ensuring that it gives them all the necessary support.
Similarly, the law lawmakers who expressed sadness over the poor support of the Dauda Lawal-led administration to security operatives, blamed the government for not adequately providing arms and other facilities to its own Security Protection Guards (Askarawa), a development which they said led to the killing of over half of the squad in confrontations with criminals.
They noted that the governor can comfortably assist families of slain members of the Security Protection Guards who lost their lives in the line of duty, “even from his N2 billion monthly Security Vote,” and urged him to also immediately give N10 million to each of the affected families.
They implored the state government to immediately rescind its decision, which saw the sacking of over 4,000 civil servants without following due process, noting that such was detrimental to the well-being of the state, particularly owing to the high level of insecurity.
The factional lawmakers argued that if so-called friends of the governor, particularly those coming from Niger, Kaduna and Adamawa states, could be building multi billion naira mansions and buying properties in their respective states shortly after visiting their Zamfara governor friend, the governor would not have any moral right nor justification to downsize the state workforce with the flimsy excuse of inadequate resources.
Accordingly they maintained that all those sacked should be returned to their duty posts and their denied salaries and other entitlement be paid in arrears.
During the sitting, all the members contributed to the debate on the issue of insecurity, breach of the nation’s constitution by governor Dauda Lawal, and indiscriminate dismissal of civil servants without cogent reasons.
Members that attended the parallel sittings were Aliyu Ango Kagara, representing Talata Mafara South, Ibrahim Tudu Tukur Bakura, Bakura, Nasiru Abdullahi Maru, Maru North and Faruk Musa Dosara, Maradun 1.
Others include Bashar Aliyu, representing Gummi 1, Barrister Bashir Abubakar Masama, representing Bukkuyum North, Amiru Ahmed, Tsafe West, Basiru Bello, Bungudu West and Mukhtaru Nasiru, Kaura Namoda North.
