Kogiflame.com
Kogi State House of Assembly on Wednesday commenced the process for the impeachment of the state Deputy Governor, Elder Simon Achuba.
The impeachment notice was read by the majority leader of the House, Abdullahi Bello (Ajaokuta, APC) as a petition on the floor of the assembly.
The lawmakers precipitated their petition on three grounds of criminal indulgence, financial misappropriation and non performance.
The majority leader who affirmed that 21 out of the 25 lawmakers signed the petition said the allegations, actions and utterances of the deputy governor amounted to gross misconduct.
He cited Section 188 of 1999 Constitution and thereafter prayed the House to commence investigation towards the impeachment move for the deputy governor.
The Speaker, Kolawole Matthew agreed to the prayers in the petition and asked the petition be serves on the deputy governor for him to respond to within the 14 days time frame of the law.
Last week the during a press conference, Achuba alleged that his life is in danger.
According to him, from all information available to him he suspect strongly that the governor has mobilized his government to attack him.
“This I want to put to the public and draw the attention of the Inspector General of Police the Director of State Security Service and law enforcement agents that if anything happens to me and any member of my family or any of my staff he should be held responsible.
“You can not by force continue to rule on the people you are called to serve and it is on this note I want to appeal to law enforcement agent and the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to beam his light upon kogi state because of the level of insecurity that is currently affecting the state.
The insecurity in kogi state today and the fear of the people of kogi state is not about arm robbery it’s not even about kidnapping anymore it’s not about ritual Killers rather it is about the gunmen of the governor who terrorise the public without being restrained,” he said.
Elder Achuba noted that as a deputy governor he has been traveling for the past two years since 2017 and the Governor has refused to pay him his allowances.
“My salary is N385,000. How can the governor assumed that I should run the office of the deputy governor if there are no other money outside my salary.
“If you have been given the opportunity to serve at any level and you are exhibiting behaviour like this how do you expect people to described you after you leave office.
He lamented that his problem with the governor started right from the inception of the administration when he failed to pay salary to workers in the state.
According to him, his position was that salary should be paid to workers because they work for it but unfortunately despite large sum Bello’s administration was getting he refused to pay workers salary.
He also said that in the last three years the governor can not point at any single project embarked upon by his administration.
“Leaders should not be a master who boost, you should be a leader who is ready to serve the people. I belief that who ever has the opportunity of being a governor should humble himself in all honesty and not going about fighting people even when the fight is unnecessary and avoidable,” he said.
