PANEL CONCLUDES SITTING FOR NYAKO'S IMPEACHMENT

The seven-man panel consti­tuted by the Act­ing Chief Judge of Adamawa State to investigate the allega­tions of gross miscon­duct levelled against Governor Murtala Nya­ko and his Deputy, Mr Bala Ngilari yesterday concluded its public sitting.
The Buba Kaigamma-led panel, which began sit­ting last Friday rounded off its assignment yesterday with only the complainant, Adamawa State House of Assembly making appearance to substantiate its al­legations against the gover­nor and his deputy who had declined appearance
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The panel said it had followed all due process to make the respondents appear before it but after waiting in vain for repre­sentatives of the governor and deputy governor, it de­cided to go ahead to watch a video clip tendered as exhibit by the complain­ants and also cross-exam­ined the only witness pre­sented by the Assembly, Mr. Wafarninyi Theman.
However, counsels to the Assembly at the sitting yesterday, Hussaini Maid­awa and Leonard Nzadon, who led Theman in giving evidence, concluded their respective presentations.
They urged the panel to take their applications against the governor and deputy governor as a prov­en case of the allegations raised against them and use that evidence in deciding the matter.
The panel chairman, Mallam Kaigama said it would take time to go over the presentations and other evidence provided by the Assembly objectively and come out with its position in a later date.
However, fielding ques­tions from newsmen yester­day, the Special Adviser to Governor Nyako on Govern­ment Affairs, Mr P P Elisha, said the governor declined to appear because due process was not followed in consti­tuting the panel.
According to him, the High Court sitting in Yola had earlier said the respon­dents should be personally served by the complainants and not through substituted service as done in some na­tional newspapers, which was at variance with the court ruling.
He stated that the appear­ance of the governor before the panel would have been at variance with the law and order by the Yola High Court, presided over by the Acting Chief Judge of Ad­amawa State, which had not been vacated.