By Ajuma Edwina Ameh
The Deputy Governor of Zamfara state, Mahdi Aliyu-Gusau, has been impeached by lawmakers in the State House of Assembly.
Aliyu-Gusau was impeached during plenary on Wednesday shortly after the House received the report of the committee set up by the State Chief Judge, Justice Kulu Aliyu, to investigate the “allegations” against him.
Gov. Bello Matawalle who was elected on the platform of PDP, had defected to APC in 2021 but the Deputy Governor refused to join him which is part of the impeachment grounds.
A seven-man impeachment probe panel, led by Retired Justice Halidu Soba, had submitted its report on Monday to the Speaker of the House.
Persecondnews gathered that the allegations leveled against the deputy governor include breach of the Constitution, gross misconduct, financial fraud, abuse of office and failure to perform assigned duties.
During the voting session on Wednesday, 20 of the 23 lawmakers voted in favour of Aliyu-Gusau’s impeachment.
A member of the panel, Oladipo Okpeseyi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, had told the Speaker that the committee carried out its assignment with “utmost integrity”.
Persecondnews recalls that the Assembly had in July 2021, invited the Deputy Governor under the provisions of Sections 128 and 129 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, but Aliyu-Gusau approached the Federal High Court, Abuja, alleging that the House was is in the process of impeaching him.
The Assembly had at its sitting on February 7, 2022, served the Deputy Governor with a Notice of Impeachment.
However, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on February 14, 2022, warned the Zamfara House of Assembly against the plan to impeach the Aliyu-Gusau.
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