Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State on
Wednesday side-lined his embattled deputy,
Ahmed Ibeto, who defected to an opposition
party, and asked the Speaker of House of
Assembly, Adamu Usman, to act in his
capacity while away to Saudi Arabia for lesser
Hajj.
Mr. Aliyu said in a letter to the speaker that
he would be out of the state from February 19
to 26.
“In my absence, the speaker will oversee my
schedules as the Acting governor,” he said in
the letter.
Mr. Aliyu had moved against the deputy after
he defected from the Peoples Democratic
Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress,
APC.
Last week, Mr. Ibeto was reportedly walked
out of state cabinet meeting, although the
government denied the reports.
The latest development came Wednesday as
the speaker, Mr. Usman, an ally of the
governor, also walked two lawmakers out of
the state assembly, for defecting to APC, after
declaring their seats vacant.
Mr. Usman, Speaker of the Niger State House
of Assembly, said the defection violated the
constitution of the state legislature.
The affected members are Bashir Lokogoma
(Wushishi) and Nazeer Abdullahi (Rijau).
Mr. Usman said the House took the decision
based on a letter from the PDP State Working
Committee confirming the defection of the two
members to APC.
The speaker then ordered the two members to
be walked out of the House by the Sergeant-
at-Arms.
The two members said the action of the
speaker amounted to impunity, adding that
their lawyers would take up the case in court
“because there exists a court order restraining
the House from taking such action”.
(NAN)
PT
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