Governor Umaru Almakura of Nasarawa State is facing impeachment because he failed to betray Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and defect to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), one of his associates has told TheCable.
Almakura, who was in the PDP before defecting to Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in 2011, was served an impeachment notice by the PDP-dominated state house of assembly on Monday.
CPC has since fused into the All Progressives Congress (APC) ─ the biggest opposition party in the country.
“If Almakura decides to return to PDP today, the impeachment move will be dropped immediately,” the associate said. “He has done nothing wrong but the PDP wants the state by all means before the 2015 elections.”
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In 2011, Almakura was the only governor elected on the platform of CPC ─ having defected from the party after being denied the PDP ticket by the governor, Alhaji Akwe Doma.
“There is no doubt that Buhari’s popularity helped Almakura to office and as a man who plays politics of principles, he will not jump ship,” he said.
Almakura inherited a PDP-dominated house of assembly and has been facing impeachment threats in the last two years.
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The associate added: “If you know Almakura very well, he is not someone to be sharing state money for the sake of politics. He is not hungry or desperate. If he wanted a majority of the house to be APC members, all he would do is share money with them. He knows how it is done. But he has refused to go that way.
“That is why the lawmakers are still in PDP and threatening him with impeachment everyday. He would rather become former governor than bow to these pressures. He was a multi-billionaire before he joined politics. He is the one of the biggest real estate developers in Abuja. He is not a hungry man.”
The speaker of the house of assembly, Alhaji Musa Ahmed, had on Monday directed the clerk of the house to serve Almakura with notice of impeachment for “gross misconduct”.
This followed a motion of public interest raised by the deputy majority leader, Mr Yahaya Usman (PDP-Umaisha/Ugya), during plenary.
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Usman presented a document signed by 20 of the 24 members of the assembly which contained the allegations of gross misconduct against the governor.
PDP has 20 members against APC’s four.
