Drama As Adamawa Lawmakers Drill Nyako’s Commissioners

By Garba Mohammad
Three Commissioners serving under Governor Murtala Nyako were thoroughly drilled on Monday by the state legislators leading to startling revelations.With what happened Monday, Nyako’s regime could be said to be effectively under probe by the lawmakers.It may also be part of the much-touted moves against the governor.
Earlier in the day, the State Commissioner of Police John Abakasanga had ushered three out of the four Commissioners declared wanted by the state House of Assembly last week before the legislators following their refusal to appear before the house to answer charges bordering on financial impropriety brought against them.
The three Commissioners include Mrs Lucy Ishaku, Barr Lilian Stephen and Alhaji Ibrahim Gorko of Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Commerce respectively.
The Commissioner of Commerce and Industry, Alhaji Ibrahim Gorko who expressed regret over his failure to honour the initial invitation of the legislatures said he was not in town when the invitation was served.
The Commissioner said out of the N2b earmarked for the sale of the Jimeta Ultra Modern Market, his ministry only realized about N100m attributing the failure to the activities of a cartel who were opposed to the government drive coupled with the imposition of Emergency Rule in the state.
He further disclosed that the Ministry operates five bank accounts into whom the proceeds of the sales of the shops are lodged even as he dispelled rumors to the effect that he physically withdraws moneys from the ministry’s accounts saying only statutory bodies has the mandate to do so.
But while expressing disappointment over what he termed inconsistent financial statements tendered by the ministry of Commerce and that of finance, speaker Ahmad Umar Fintri said that he suspected a foul play behind the double standard displayed and asked the commissioner to furnish the house with one year transactions of all the accounts.
He rebuked the commissioner for telling the house that he did not collect rents at the Jimeta Ultra modern market as the various memos the commissioner sent to the governor indicated that the ministry charges rents from shop owners.
During her defence at the House, Commissioner of health Barr. Lilian Stephen defended her extra budgetary expenditures incurred by the ministry saying she had earlier made provision to cater for the extra expenditure incurred by her ministry a position which the house said was illegal as it virements could only be dispensed by the house.
But her remarks did not go down with the speaker who chided the commissioner for not knowing what goes around in her ministry ,saying that billions of tax payers’ money were being siphoned under her watch as she kept appending her signatures on them.
He noted that there were two budgetary sub heads of N220m and N38m for MDG in the 2013 budget which were all paid but unfortunately she acceded to accepting only N38m.
However, a mild drama played out between the commissioner and the speaker when the former disclosed that she sponsored one of the first ladies on a trip to France where N8m was expended.
Infuriated by the action the speaker asked whether the said first lady was a director in the ministry to which the commissioner answer in the negative, the speaker then warned the commissioner to stop further extravagance with government funds as he said billions of Naira has been stolen under her watch.
However investigations into the activities of the Ministry of Agriculture could not commence following the failure of the commissioner of Agriculture Mrs Lucy Ishaku to come with relevant documents, she was asked to go back and prepare as she seems not ready and to come back Tuesday.
In a swift riposte, Adamawa state Government has debunked the action of the legislatures saying that it was meant to witch-hunt the state government.
In a Press Release signed by the Director of Press Mallam Ahmad Sajoh, the state government said the claim that the Commissioners were arrested by the police was false, malicious and a calculated attempt to ridicule the Government and embarrass the persons concerned.
A lengthy statement by Nyako’s spokesman said “The attention of Adamawa State Government has been drawn to some unnecessary and unwarranted drama that took place on the floor of the House of Assembly today 16th of June, 2014 during which a number of Hon. Commissioners were supposedly presented to the House by the Police.
“It was most unfortunate and smirks of blackmail for both the House and the Police to have acted the way they did. The claim that the Commissioners were arrested by the police was false, malicious and a calculated attempt to ridicule the Government and embarrass the persons concerned. For the record, what happened was that the said Commissioners were invited by the House of Assembly not as individuals but as officers of the Government of Adamawa State. The invitation letters addressed them as Hon. Commissioners and not in their personal names. The invitation letters were earlier delivered to their offices by 9.30 am inviting them to appear by 10.00 am the same day 12th June. 2014. This was indeed very regrettable and unfortunate. They sent their Permanent Secretaries to represent them on the scheduled dates, because they were not in the State.
“The House of Assembly rejected the Permanent Secretaries but failed to abide by the legal fact that their representation was a sufficient excuse under section 128(1)d of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, which states; that the House of Assembly shall:(d) Issue a warrant to compel the attendance of any person who, after having been summoned to attend, fails, refuses or neglects to do so and does not excuse such failure, refusal or neglect.
“It is an affront on natural justice for a person who sends a representative to be deemed to have refused or neglected a summons.
“The drama concerning the purported arrest was also a mere blackmail since none of the officers summoned was shown an arrest warrant by the police nor picked from their homes or offices. They all went to the House on their own and were waylaid by the leadership of the House who call in the police to purportedly present them to the House as if they were common criminals.
“This is quite unfortunate and regrettable. The whole process adopted is not in tandem with the provision of section 128 of the Constitution and violated the fundamental rights of the officers concerned. What transpired amounted to mere harassment and intimidation of the said Commissioners.