The embattled governor of Nasarawa Tanko al-Makura has been accused by the state lawmakers of committing 16 impeachable offences bordering on alleged official gross misconduct.
The charges by the state House of Assembly include missing local government joint account funds between June 2011 and April 2012; and from January to July, 2013.
The impeachment notice said the alleged offences amounted to gross violation of section 162 (7 and 8) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended.
The impeachment notice was signed by 20 out of the 24 members of the assembly.
Al-Makura alleged offences, according to the House, also include misappropriation/misapplication of funds in local government joint account and local government SURE-P Fund as well as transfer of local government Sure-P Fund to a fixed deposit account.
The governor is also being accused of spending N13, 205,000 on his wife’s trips to Abuja.
Unlike the case of the impeached ex-Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State, Al-Makura’s accusers had been facing stiff opposition by groups in the state.
The protests commenced on Wednesday by some youths in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, continued on Thursday with angry youths in their thousands setting on fire a house said to belong to a man from the Eggon tribe in the state.
Al-Makura is of Gwandera ethnic extraction, which is one of the smallest ethnic groups in the state.
The house that was razed was said to have on its walls several campaign posters of the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, who is an Eggon man.
Two persons were said to have been killed during the Thursday protest.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ismaila Numaan, confirmed the protests and the burning of the house but he said he was not aware that two persons died.
The police spokesman said the building was set ablaze in the early hours of Thursday.
Also on Thursday, a coalition of women groups comprising the Federation of Muslim Women Association of Nigeria, Christian Association of Nigeria, Women Wing and Women of Nasarawa State, Mothers of Nasarawa State and Women for Change, Nasarawa State, protested the impeachment moves against the governor.
Coordinator of the women groups, Hajiya Hajara Danyaro, slammed the Nasarawa lawmakers’ action.
Danyaro said that women in the state voted for the lawmakers on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party and voted governor Al-Makura on the platform of All the Progressives Congress and that the action of the legislators was uncalled for.
Danyaro accused the PDP of masterminding the impeachment move. She said the impeachment move coincided with the visit of President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday to inaugurate Ola Rice Farm at Rukubi in the Doma Local Government Area of the state.
