Jigawa speaker, 2 officers impeached

The Speaker of the Jigawa State House of Assembly, Isa Idris Gwaram, has been impeached alongside the Majority Leader, Sani Isiaku Abubakar, and the Chief Whip, Aminu Sule Sankara.

However, Idris Garba alias Kareka, a former speaker that was impeached on January 3, 2017, for alleged high-handedness and arrogating too much power to himself, yesterday, bounced back as the new speaker.

In a frantic effort to save his office, the ousted Speaker, Gwaram, attempted to amend the House Standing Rule that would stop any impeached principal officer from seeking reelection for any office under the leadership of the assembly.

The move met a stiff resistance leading to a rowdy plenary on Tuesday, forcing the assembly to adjourn sitting to yesterday.

Twenty lawmakers that plotted the impeachment of the speaker in the 30-member assembly took over the plenary by commencing sitting before the arrival of the embattled speaker.

Barr. Bala Hamza presided over the sitting as pro tem speaker, while Haladu Usman Kanya (Kanya Constituency) raised the motion based on urgent matter for public interest by calling for a change of leadership in the assembly.

He read the names of the 20 members that appended their signatures for the impeachment of the speaker.

Thereafter, the members unanimously elected Garba as the new speaker.

In his acceptance speech, the new speaker said he never knew of the plan to bring him back as speaker.