...says Umar remains acting governor
The Taraba State House of Assembly yesterday invited Governor Danbaba Suntai to appear and address lawmakers to convince them of his fitness to resume work.
Speaker Haruna Tsokwa, who announced this at a news conference in Jalingo, said the legislators had attempted to see the governor, who returned from a 10-month foreign medical trip on Sunday, but were blocked by a “cabal” who said he needed to rest after a long journey.
“Our request is simple, we want our dear governor, whom we all love so dearly, to resist the temptation by those who want to use him for their selfish ends, to come out and address the good people of our dear state before their elected representatives,” Tsokwa said.
“If on the other hand the governor is not fit to address the people, which could then mean that he is not fit to run the affairs of the state, then the Hon. House will have no hesitation in granting him leave to go back for further treatment.”
The House had in November mandated deputy governor Garba Umar to become acting governor, following Suntai’s plane crash in October.
Tsokwa said yesterday Umar remained in charge of affairs in Taraba since the lawmakers were not sure of Suntai’s state of health. He spoke along with his deputy Tanko Maikarfi and deputy majority leader Josiah Sabo Kente.
He said there was no motive behind the request for Suntai to appear before the House other than “love for dear state, as well as for the well-being of our dear governor and the happiness of his family.”
Suntai made a dramatic return to Nigeria on Sunday, following months abroad to treat injuries he sustained in the crash of a plane he was piloting near Yola, Adamawa State, on October 25 last year. Two days after the crash, he was flown to a hospital in Germany and then to the United States in March where he had remained until his return.
Associates claim Suntai has fully recovered and is fit enough to take charge. But there are doubts over those claims, especially after he was seen being helped to deplane in Abuja and Jalingo. He has remained out of public view since then.
Speaker Tsokwa said yesterday that the events since the return of the governor has demonstrated the desperation of few individuals to polarise the state thereby causing disunity, and that such activities needed to be checked.
“In the run-up to the governor’s return, and indeed since his arrival in the state, the story coming from those who kept our dear governor in their custody is that the governor has fully recovered and is ready to resume the onerous task of administering the state,” he said. Such would be good news for all, Tsokwa said, but expressed displeasure over the manner the governor has been kept from public view since his return.
“Unfortunately, since his return, our dear governor has been kept away from public view and all efforts by the Hon. House led by the Hon. Speaker and the House leadership to formally welcome the governor have been resisted by the few that now constitute a cabal around Governor Suntai,” he added.
He said this “is a clear attempt to re-enact the Yar’Adua saga (that) nearly tore the nation,” referring to the incident in February 2010 when then-President Umaru Yar’Adua was brought back from a Saudi hospital even though it was clear he was too ill to govern. He died just over two months later.
Tsokwa said as representatives of the people, the state lawmakers would not fail in their duties by allowing the trend to continue.
But the House appeared to have been split, as the Majority Leader Joseph Albasu Kunini, who earlier spoke to journalists, said the constitution did not require Suntai to appear in the House before he could take charge as governor.
He told the BBC Hausa radio that the legal requirement was only for him to write to the House to notify them of his return, which he had done.
Speaker Tsokwa denied having mandated the majority leader to address a news conference to announce adoption of the communication from Suntai. He also refuted the claim by the majority leader that he and his deputy ran away from the House to avoid meeting with people.
There was no immediate reaction from Suntai’s office on the invitation by the lawmakers. Daily Trust tried to get comments from the governor’s spokesman Sylvanus Giwa but he did not answer calls or reply to a text message sent to him.
Also, there was no comment from the acting governor’s office.
Daily trust
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