Bauchi State Government has declared that “it is now clear that our legislators are not the problem, neither is the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Adams Oshiomhole is the problem. He is a clear and present danger to political stability in Bauchi State.”
The government while reacting to recent visit of some members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Villa stated that, “The APC chairman should rethink his strategy as it is dead on arrival because he is dealing with political paper-tigers who were roundly defeated and soundly rejected by our people.”
In a statement signed by the spokesperson of the governor, Ladan Salihu, the state government stated that ‘What is clear is that Our President was shortchanged with the relevant information by those who led the Group for their personal interests and primordial dispositions.”
As far as the government and people of Bauchi State are concerned, the enforced disharmony is now history. Bauchi legislature is one united family. The issue of another proclamation is ludicrous. This explains why he excluded members of Edo State Assembly from a visit to the Villa.”
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The statement reads: “The attention of the State Government is drawn to the Courtesy Call on President Muhammadu Buhari by Eight Members of the State Assembly, led by the APC Chairman, Mr Adams Oshionmole. The Government notes that while stakeholders defer to Mr President and updates to him are normal, we must dignify his office with the correct information and true position of things”.
“The eight members led by the APC National Chairman were part of the 17 who were sworn in last week on the floor of the Assembly. All the 31 legislators are now members of One State Assembly. The media is awash with the video, audio and print materials that captured the swearing-in ceremony,” the statement further contained.
Ladan Salihu concluded that “The Governor appreciates the pronouncement of the President to deal with the issue in line with the Constitution because he is a President for all.”
It will be recalled that following the visit of some members of the State House of Assembly led by the National Chairman of the APC to President Muhammadu Buhari, the President has declared that he will deal with the leadership crisis rocking Bauchi and Edo States Houses of Assembly conditionally as soon as the Attorney General and Minister of Justice was sworn in later this month.
Though there was dissent among the members when the 9th Assembly was constituted on June 20th, the aggrieved 17 members including the former Speaker, Kawuwa Shehu Damina were last week sworn in during a special session of the Assembly presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Danlami Kawule Ahmed and witnessed by the State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir.
Meanwhile, a former member of the Bauchi State House of Assembly who represented Dass constituency, Honourable Mariam Bagel, has fingered the immediate past Governor, Mohammed Abubakar as the mastermind of the leadership crisis in the State Assembly.
Making the allegations while speaking in an interview with Journalists in Bauchi, on Thursday, the former female lawmaker warned the former Governor to stay clear of the politics of the state, describing his tenure as a woeful venture in the history of the state.
She berated Mohammed Abubakar for being behind last Wednesday’s visit by six of the 17 newly inaugurated members of the State House of Assembly to President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa even after the crisis in the House had been amicably resolved through political and reasoning means.
She said: “I am serious warning the former Governor to stay away from Bauchi State politics. He failed in the state, so let him not manipulate our Legislators to make it difficult for our new government to work. Our interest is Bauchi State and they should allow Bauchi to move forward.
Maryam Bagel added, “I am calling on my colleagues to come back and work. If there is anything wrong that will come from the government they will see it and nobody will stop them from doing the right thing. They should not be chasing shadows going to Abuja. The President cannot coerce and take over the State Assembly. It is against the Constitution”
She further said: “This is not the first time that the former Governor has been running to the Presidency. During the 2019 campaigns or even before that he has been going there and we know even from the state primaries, we saw some APC members run to the Presidency to complain about the situation in the state and so also up to today and so it is what they sow that they are reaping now.”
The vocal politician alleged that “Mohammed Abubakar destroyed APC since during the party’s congresses. There were no congresses and primaries in Bauchi State and everybody knows that. People went to the President and complained, people went to the party and complained to no avail as no action was taken, is it now that they went to the party and tell the President to come and take over the state? One thing that needs to be understood is that as the President everything should be done according to the Constitution of the country and there is nowhere in the Constitution where the Governor should give a second proclamation.”
“I understand this very circumstance and the situation that happened in the Bauchi State is the exact thing that happened in the 2015 National Assembly election. It was politics that took place nothing was done outside the Constitution. We remember during the Saraki saga what happened. It was when some members were somewhere and some members came and did it before they came. At that time no second proclamation was called for so the contradiction is if anybody said this thing (Bauchi Assembly election) is illegal it means all the laws that were passed in the last four years were illegal. Everything that happened was just politics and in politics, anything can happen but nobody can say it was illegal”, she added.
Maryam Bagel concluded that “The way forward is, as the President said, nothing can be done outside the Constitution and these lawmakers were elected by their constituents. Let them go back and lead them. What they now want is for the President to use his power and take over the Assembly forcefully and give it to them. Then the present Governor reached out to the House of Assembly and so they have no reason to fight him”.
” I was part of the last administration and l gave the former government almost one year to know whether they will work or not but these members started fighting the government from day one even before they were inaugurated they started fighting the government. The government that has not even spent one month in an office you are fighting it. Why did they say people loyal to the President should be leaders of the National Assembly so that the President can find it easy to work? Is it not hypocritical that they do not want members who are opposing team governor should be the leader of the assembly so that the state will not work? Are they saying that they want to it difficult for the current governor work? She asked.
17 APC members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly taking the oath of office and allegiance.
All 31 members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly at the Government House with the State Governor, Senator Bala Mohammed.
Bauchi State Governor, Sen. Bala Mohammed leading the members of the State House of Assembly in prayer at the Government House after a meeting.