The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has faulted the impeachment of the Kogi State Deputy Governor, Mr Simeon Achuba, describing it Governor Yahaya Bello’s desperate and underhand measures to forcefully remove Achuba from office.
Achuba was on Friday impeached by the state’s House of Assembly against the recommendation of a report of an investigative panel by the state’s Judiciary that cleared him of allegations of wrongdoing.
In a statement on Saturday by the spokesman for the PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the main opposition party said the governor was clinging on straws.
The PDP said that by coercing the state House of Assembly against the deputy governor even when the State Judiciary Panel acquitted him of all allegations, Governor Bello only confirmed that he has lost public trust and now desperately resorting to dirty politics and crafty methods for survival.
The statement said, “This action of trying to remove the deputy governor via unconstitutional methods and in total disregard to the verdict of the judicial panel is, in itself, a gross misconduct and grave constitutional violation for which the state assembly, as an institution, ought to have removed Yahaya Bello as the governor of the state.
“The PDP however alerts that the next victim of such underhand methods would be the state assembly itself, which now appears to be on the way to being used to enact draconian rules to suppress and intimidate the people of Kogi state, since there is no way Yahaya Bello will win the November 16 election and return to office.
“It is however instructive to state that the action of the House of Assembly, in yielding to Yahaya Bello’s antics, has further reduced Kogi state to a butt of jokes among compatriots in other states of our federation.
“What it means is that Yahaya Bello can wake up tomorrow morning and shut down institutions of government, including the state legislature, the judiciary and even the civil service and become a law unto himself.
“However, whether the State House of Assembly has any morsel of courage left in its chamber to protect the state and her people or not, Governor Bello will surely face the judgment of the people on November 16, where he will be kicked out of office through the ballot box”.
The party further stated that it’s also public knowledge that the governor seeks to repress the deputy governor over the latter’s decision to expose the impunity and corruption in the Bello administration, which the PDP said, had brought so much suffering to the people of Kogi state in the last four years.
“What Nigerians expect is for Governor Bello to respond to the allegations by the deputy governor instead of this resort to bullying and attempts to remove him through unconstitutional method; a scheme that cannot stand.
“Our apprehension is that Governor Bello, in his desperation to cling unto power, even when he has been rejected by the people, is now turning Kogi state into a state of “anything goes.” We, therefore, call on all compatriots to condemn and resist the reprehensible actions of Governor Yahaya Bello.
“Nigeria is a nation governed by law and nobody, no matter the desperation, should be allowed to turn her, or any part thereof, to a Banana Republic”.
