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Gov. Nyako Impeachment: Anti-Corruption Group Wants Bribery Allegations Against Adamawa Assembly Probed

July 25, 2014

Calling on the commission to investigate the allegations of bribery and inducement connected with the impeachment process of Mr. Nyako, CSNAC said, “We are especially requesting that members of Adamawa State House of Assembly be probed for allegedly demanding N2billion from the former governor..."

The Civil Society Network Against Corruption (CSNAC), has asked the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate allegations of bribery and inducement against members of the Adamawa State House of Assembly in the July 15 impeachment of Governor Murtala Nyako.

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Former Governor Nyako

In a petition signed by its chairman, Olarewaju Siraju, CSNAC recalled that the Assembly purportedly impeached Mr. Nyako by adopting the report of a seven-member investigative panel headed by a retired judicial officer, Buba Kajama, which found the Governor guilty of 16 out of the 20 allegations levelled against him.  Eighteen of the Assembly’s 25 members then reportedly elected to remove Mr. Nyako.

“Prior and after the incident, allegations were traded between People’s Democratic Party (PDP) - Mr. Nyako’s former party; and All Progressives Congress (APC) – the party Mr. Nyako recently defected to,” the petition said. 

CSNAC noted that APC and some observers connected the impeachment solely to his recent defection from a vengeful PDP.

“A salient accusation recently came to light: Premium Times on 21st July, 2014 related that, the Adamawa State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, alleged that the State House of Assembly demanded N2 billion constituency allowances from the State governor, Murtala Nayko, as a condition for halting his impeachment. The Party further alleged that the lawmakers collected N350 million upfront from the governor, but still went ahead to impeach him.”

The petition also drew the attention of the ICPC to the fact that on July 9, Channelstv reported that Mr. Babachir Lawal, the National Vice Chairman of APC in the northeast, as telling a news conference in Abuja ahead of the impeachment effort against Mr. Nyako that that the process was being sponsored.

Calling on the commission to investigate the allegations of bribery and inducement connected with the impeachment process of Mr. Nyako, CSNAC said, “We are especially requesting that members of Adamawa State House of Assembly be probed for allegedly demanding N2billion from the former governor as a condition of halting his impeachment and collecting N350 million upfront from him.