Speaker Of Jigawa State House of Assembly Impeached

Deputy Speaker Ahmed Garba, who presided over the sitting attended by 23 members, said Idris Garba was impeached due to alleged high handedness and abuse of power, NAN reports.

Speaker of the Jigawa state House of Assembly Idris Garba has been impeached.

It was gathered that members of the House impeached him this morning, January 3, and elected Alhaji Isa Idris as new speaker.

The Clerk of the house, Hussaini Ali, earlier announced that he received an impeachment notice signed by 25 of the 30 assembly members, and which he read on the floor of the house.

Shortly after, the Deputy Speaker read the impeachment notice on the floor of the house, and confirmed the number of members that signed the notice.

According to Ahmed Garba, 25 of the 30-member assembly endorsed the impeachment notice. 

This showed that the House met the constitutional requirement of two third to impeach any of its principal officers.

“With this development, I hereby declare the seat of the Speaker vacant and a fresh election should be conducted to elect the new speaker,” he said.

Following Idris Garba's impeachment, two members– Isa Dutse of Dutse Municipal constituency and Isa Idris of Gwaram constituency– were nominated for the election to replace the impeached Speaker.

However, Isa Idris defeated Isa Dutse with 12 to six votes, while five members were indifferent.

In his acceptance Speech, the new Speaker promised to run an open door policy and solicited members’ support and cooperation.

Idris Garba’s impeachment makes him the third speaker to lose his post in recent days across Nigeria. 

Last week, Abia state House of Assembly impeached a speaker Martins Azubuike but his replacement Kennedy Njoku resigned 24 hours after. 

In Rivers state, the speaker Adams Dabotorudima also stepped down by ‘political arrangement’ for a new one.