The impeachment came after the House adopted the recommendations of the report of a panel submitted on Monday.
Nyako will be the fifth governor to be impeached since the nation’s return to democracy in 1999. Others who have been impeached are Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State, Rasheed Ladoja of Oyo, Ayo Fayose of Ekiti and Joshua Dariye of Plateau State. However, the court reversed the impeachment of Dariye and Ladoja.
The Speaker of Adamawa House of Assembly, Alhaji Ahamadu Umaru Fintiri, yesterday took an oath of office as the Acting Governor of the state.
After taking the oath of office at a ceremony that was attended by top political leaders in the state and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) national executives, Fintiri lamented that the decay in the state government was worse than the Boko Haram crisis in the north-east zone.
He said that in the past seven years, Adamawa had been under administrative terror and rape of constitutional provisions, turning the state into a private estate.
“Adamawa State will never again have this kind of government that treated the people as if they were in captivity or they were prisoners of war,” he said.
He said that his administration would restore the lost glory of the state and rekindle the hope of the residents.
He commended the courage of the lawmakers to defy intimidation from different quarters.
There was thunderous ovation when the acting governor said that he would pay workers the two months salaries Nyako refused to pay since 2011.
This was the second time Fintiri would be sworn in as acting governor. The first time was in January 2012, when the Supreme Court sacked Nyako from office over tenure elongation.
There were 20 impeachable offences that cost Nyako his job. On June 19, the state House of Assembly commenced impeachment proceedings against Nyako and his deputy, James Bala Ngilari, over allegations of gross misconduct.
The House approved a list of 20 acts that constituted gross misconduct allegedly committed by Nyako, which prompted Fintiri, to order the Clerk to serve him (Nyako) an impeachment notice.
The allegations ranged from fraudulent diversion of public funds, extra-budgetary expenditure, appointment of family members and friends into public offices and siphoning of public funds.
Nyako, who defected from the PDP to the APC, had a hard time with the lawmakers, most of who did not join him to defect to the opposition party.
His case was further compounded by the letter he wrote in April to his colleagues in the northern states, accusing President Goodluck Jonathan of genocide in the war against Boko Haram in the region.
That letter reportedly earned him a strong rebuke from the presidency, which has not forgiven him for denigrating the office of the president.
In fact, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, lambasted Nyako for daring to challenge Jonathan. He said Nyako did not deserve to be a governor given his utterances.
The former governor’s offences include:
. Fraudulent diversion of N2.3 billion of Adamawa State workers’ salaries for September and October 2011.
. Illegal deductions and diversions of N142 million emoluments of Adamawa workers in May 2014.
. Diversion of N120 million to sponsor a fictitious visit of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to Adamawa State to commiserate with victims of insurgency in Madagili and Michika Local Government Areas.
. Extra-budgetary expenditure of N1, 740,785,246 on fictitious special assistants and another N166, 230,536.88 on personal assistants in 2013.
. Fraudulent award of contract of over N8 billion through SNECOU Group of Companies Ltd, a company linked to one of the governor’s wives, to siphon public funds without delivering any services to the people of Adamawa State.
. Corrupt siphoning of N300 million public funds through a company, Hydrosource Resources Ltd in the name of construction of Mubi by-pass without mobilising to site or any work being done long after collecting N300 million from the state.
. Gross violation of the oath of office by outrageous patronage and dominance of family and friends in the discharge of government business such as found in the MDGs Office, the SPPU and Ministry of Health.
. Gross violation of Section 120 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and misappropriation of internally generated revenue for personal use to the detriment of the people of Adamawa State.
. Squandering of N4, 805,216,538.32 and N7, 114,995,590.85 in 2012 and 2013 respectively through the Office of the Secretary to the State Government against budgetary approvals, and not in the interest of the people of Adamawa State.
. Expenditure of exorbitant N2.5 billion as “Other Miscellaneous Expenses” through the Internal Affairs and Special Services Department.
. Extra-budgetary procurement of fertiliser and diversion of proceeds from the sale of fertiliser from 2007 to date.
. The MDGs Office in Adamawa State is managed by the Nyako’s close relations and squandered N220 million and N786, 457,644.94 million unbudgeted state funds in 2013 on the implementation of MDGs programme in the state.
. Diversion of over N400 million out of the N500 million Federal Government Intervention Fund for flood victims in Adamawa State 2011.
. Diversion of government funds through the illegal importation of hospital equipment to the tune of N156 million while the state still owes the contractor; and illegal acquisition of containerised mobile workshop for vocational training centres.
. Corruption and extra-budgetary awards of contracts for the construction of army barracks at Mayobelwa Road, Pella-Maiha Road, Gombi – Ga’anda-Fotta Road, Rumde-Yolde Pate Road, and the construction of Mubi by-pass, contrary to Section 120 (2) (3) and (4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
. Squandering of N1 billion Adamawa State Scholarship Trust Fund.
. Shoddy conception and operation of Adamawa German Hospital, managed by a close relation to Nyako.
. Reckless expenditure of public funds contrary to Section 121 subsection 4 (a) and (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
. Abuse of office and violation of Adamawa State law by appointing his wife, Dr. Halima H. Nyako, as the chairman, Adamawa State Action Committee on Aids (SACA) contrary to the SACA Law. His government is popularly nicknamed “Government of Family and Friends.”
. Overbearing strangulation of the local government areas and extortion of the Local Government Funds in the name of joint projects and security in Mubi and other parts of Adamawa State. This leaves many local government areas with nothing to pay workers’ entitlements. The governor is also known to consistently contravene Section 168 (6) and (8) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Northern leaders said that the impeachment of Nyako had shown that the nation’s democracy was not mature.
Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) chieftain and spokesman of Northern Delegates Forum (NDF), Mr. Anthony Sani, who reacted to the impeachment of Nyako by the lawmakers, said that the nation was still treading on the path of bad politics that derailed democracy in the past.
Former Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in Plateau State, Mr. Lawrence Anyia, said that if the governor was personally and properly served, his impeachment was in order.
“What I did not know was whether he was served personally because I knew when he was evading service. The panel that investigated the allegations levelled against him was constitutionally and legally set up by the Acting Chief Judge of the state,” he said.
Anyia added that if he was personally served, the impeachment notice and he refused to appear before the panel, “then he has himself to blame because appearing before the panel is a constitutional provision to give him a fair hearing. It is a process in law not to sentence an accused person without giving him a fair hearing.”
The Special Adviser on Political Matters to the Plateau State Governor, Nde Alexander Molwus, said that the impeachment served Nyako right because “every democracy demands some level of moderation.”
But constitutional lawyer and member of the defunct Justice Uwais led Electoral Reform Panel, Mr. Festus Okoye, condemned the impeachment of Nyako.
According to Okoye, “the impeachment of the governor is a product of political opportunism, insensitivity and elite greed for power and its perquisites. The impeachment is laced with positioning for the 2015 general elections and is a poisonous narrative on the perfidy that goes for politics in Nigeria.”
The embattled former governor joined politics in 2006 and was elected as governor of Adamawa State on May 29, 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He was at one time military governor of Niger State, having been appointed Chief of Naval Staff in December 1989.
In February 2008, the Election Petition Appeal Tribunal Report found the governor guilty of all the 16 allegations of gross misconduct levelled against him by the House. The tribunal upheld the nullification of his election, and the House Speaker James Barka, was sworn in as Acting Governor on February 26, 2008.
A fresh election was conducted, and Nyako was re-elected with a landslide victory, taking all the 21 local government councils. He returned to office on April 29, 2008.
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