Paul Orude, Bauchi
Gombe State House of Assembly has suspended four All Progressives Congress (APC) members for allegedly conspiring to remove the mace, the chamber’s symbol of authority; in a bid to prevent the removal of Minority Leader, Ahmed Haruna.
The APC members were allegedly annoyed over Haruna’s role in the party’s ward and council’s congresses in the state.
Haruna reportedly held a press conference on May 5, soon after the APC ward congress, where he condemned the exercise in the state, describing it as ‘total failure’.
It was learnt that consequent upon the development, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)-dominated assembly, felt aggrieved over the move by the minority leader and began the removal process.
Chairman of the House Committee on Information and Majority leader, Mr Fabulous Amos, a member of the PDP, while briefing newsmen in Gombe, announced the chamber’s decision to suspend the members.
He described the incident on the floor of the House as ‘undemocratic and unfortunate’.
“What happened, today (yesterday) is not good for any democratic setting. We are peace-loving members here, unfortunately, an incident occurred here.
“Some APC members wanted to impeach the minority leader. Within this saga, the eight APC members were divided into two groups. In the course of the saga, Mr Abdullai Abubakar, of Akko West State Constituency, took the mace, with assistance from three other members on his side. Four members were for the impeachment while four were against.
“However, in a bid to prevent any impeachment plan, the four members against the impeachment conspired to forcibly remove the mace. The House met, using a spare mace, and suspended the four members, belonging to APC, who stole the mace, for four legislative days,” he said.
He said the mace was allegedly taken by Abubakar, at exactly 1:15p.m. and was assisted by Mr Mohammed Bello of Gombe South Constituency, all APC members.
He listed the names of the suspended members as Abdullahi Abubakar, Mohammed Bello, Ibrahim Abdullahi and Walid Mohammed, who were all against the impeachment of the minority leader.
All efforts to speak with Haruna were unsuccessful as he refused to answer calls or respond to text messages sent to him.
Other APC members of the involved in the mace theft also turned off their mobile phones.
The Commissioner of Police, Mr Shina Olukolu, said he was yet to be officially briefed.
