By John Ekah, Gusau
Factional members of the Zamfara State House of Assembly have sacked all principal officers and standing committees and appointed two vital committees.
They justified their action as being designed to give the legislature better focus.
These were disclosed by the factional Speaker, Hon. Bashar Aliyu Gummi, shortly after the house plenary which was held in Gusau, the state capital.
He said two standing committees -those of Ethics and Privileges as well as Works and Infrastructure -have been immediately reconstituted, to be chaired by Hon. Masama and Hon. Bashir Sarkin Zango, respectively.
The House resolved to file all financial misappropriation reports against the axed principal officers to the nation’s anti-corruption agencies in order to recover all allegedly siphoned public funds.
During the sitting and under matters of urgent public importance, the lawmakers condemned the lopsided appointment of Permanent Secretaries by the Governor Dauda Lawal-led state government.
In the motion raised by Hon. Ibrahim Tudu Tukur, member representing Bakura state constituency, he drew the attention of the members to how some Local Government Areas (LGA) were completely edged out in the appointment of Permanent Secretaries whereas some allegedly favoured LGAs had more than nine, citing Tsafe, Maradun and Birnin Magaji LGAs as having none.
He noted that the action is a violation of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), insisting that it must be reviewed to conform to the constitutional principles of fairness and justice to all citizens of the state.
The House immediately directed Gov. Lawal to reverse the appointments and include the appointment of Permanent Secretaries fairly from all the state’s LGAs.
Similarly, the factional legislative arm frowned at the slow pace of the multi-billion Naira Gusau-Dansadau road project where huge sums of money had been paid to the contractors since last year but work was yet to cover five kilometres.
The lawmakers then directed the state Commissioner of Works and Infrastructure to appear before the House to explain the problem, pointing out that “all public and tax payers’ money must be judiciously spent on the purposes meant.”
The House also urged Gov. Lawal to,in line with concerned parents’ demands, direct the reopening of at least two boarding schools shut down due to insecurity in each of the three Senatorial Districts, to allow for better studies with the legislature accusing government of refusal to reopen the schools in order to avoid the school feeding programme which,the legislators noted, had helped underprivileged children and retained students in schools.
It would be recalled that a parallel State House of Assembly,led by Hon. Gummi, haf emerged Wednesday last week.
The group had been raising sensitive issues of public concern against both the executive and the Hon. Moriki-led factional assembly with both the state government and the Moriki Assembly, yet to make clear public comments on the development.
