Amid Gov. Mohammed’s coronavirus attack, Bauchi lawmakers plot speaker’s removal

Since The Governor tested Positive for coronavirus, the law makers engage plots to remove him. 

There are indications that majority members of Bauchi State House of Assembly are keen on reversing the election of the Speaker, Alhaji Abubakar Suleiman, through the window provided by the absence of Governor Bala Mohammed, who has been quarantined after testing positive to the highly contagious coronavirus.

At the inception of the present dispensation on May 29, 2019, Bauchi and Edo States’ Houses of Assembly were embroiled in intense crises following schemes by their governors to have a say on who emerge as Speakers and presiding officers of the legislatures.

In Edo State, both the governor and the 24 members-elect belong to the All Progressives Congress (APC), in contrast to the situation in Bauchi, where APC was in the majority, while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which won the governorship, had only eight lawmakers out of the 31-member legislative arm.

The Bauchi State House of Assembly (BSHA) comprises 22 APC, eight PDP and one New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) lawmakers. It was based on this lopsided distribution of membership along party lines that the 9th Bauchi House of Assembly took off on a controversial note.

To emerge as Speaker, Suleiman, though a member of APC, secured the support of his eight PDP colleagues alongside the endorsement of the executive arm, led by Governor Mohammed, who was an erstwhile Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. After the initial misgivings, the APC, after its defeat on the inauguration day, June 20, 2019, forlornly and bitterly accepted Suleiman’s election by 13 members out of the 31 lawmakers, which did not receive the blessing of the party’s majority caucus.

After the crisis that ensued lasted FOR 42 days, the aggrieved APC majority lawmakers reluctantly agreed to sheathe their swords. But, eight months after leading the Assembly, Suleiman is now facing a fresh threat of impeachment by his APC colleagues, who accuse him of being more PDP than APC as well as being unduly subservient to Governor Mohammed.

A reliable source in the House explained  how plans are at advanced stage to dislodge the Speaker and put Governor Mohammad under intense pressure. He disclosed that there was instruction from the camp of the former Governor Abubakar to change the Assembly’s leadership that could play strong opposition to Mohammed’s policies. It was also learnt that the move to effect a change in the Assembly’s leadership is ostensibly to halt the probe of former Governor Abubakar after he was indicted by an Asset Recovery Panel for alleged corruption.

“What exacerbated this move is the report of the Assets Recovery Committee,” the source said. “The former governor, Abubakar, is looking for support of the lawmakers since they control the Assembly. If there is change of leadership, they can force the governor to do some things,” added that some PDP members in the House are also lamenting being sidelined and that could be an advantage to their calculation.