Plateau Speaker, Abok, impeached by 8 out of 24 lawmakers

The Speaker of Plateau State House of Assembly, Ayuba Abok, has been impeached by eight lawmakers out of the 24-member Assembly.

The Punch reported that the impeachment was carried out at the Assembly complex on Thursday morning.

Abok, a first-term lawmaker representing Jos East state constituency, was promptly replaced by the lawmaker representing Pengana constituency, Yakubu Sanda of the All Progressives Congress.

Musa Agah, the lawmaker representing Rukuba/Irigwe constituency in the state House of Assembly, confirmed the development to The PUNCH in Jos and described the lawmakers’ action as “the height of illegality”.

Shedding more light on what happened, Agah said, “It was this morning (Thursday) that some few members rushed to the Plateau state House of Assembly as early as 6 am. You know the state House of Assembly is made up of 24 members and the constitutional requirement for the removal of the Speaker is 2/3 majority which is 16 members.

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“So, eight lawmakers rushed to the Assembly this morning against the House rules that say that plenary commences from 9 am and even if there is going to be an extraordinary sitting, the Speaker is the one who is empowered to convene but that did not happen.

“When some of us got wind of what was happening, we rushed to the Assembly complex only to discover that Security operatives had barricaded everywhere. Some of us were stopped from gaining access to the Assembly complex while they also harassed others.

“While the confusion was going on, the eight members said they have passed a vote of no confidence on the Speaker and went ahead to purportedly remove the speaker.”

Read original article on The Punch.