Taraba Assembly Speaker resigns

The Speaker, Taraba State House of Assembly, Mr Abel Peter Diah, on Sunday evening resigned amidst alleged plots by the state governor, Darius Ishaku to impeach him and other principal officers of the House.

In a phone call on Sunday evening, Diah said that he had decided to “resign as the speaker of the Taraba State House of Assembly for personal reasons.”

Diah appreciated the members for giving him the chance to serve them in the capacity and urged to continue to work for the interest of Taraba State rather than personal reasons.

Tension had continued to mount over the weekend with alleged plans by Governor Darius Ishaku to mobilise and impeach the speaker following alleged moves by the House to impeach the governor a few weeks ago.

However, in a statement issued in Jalingo on Saturday morning and signed by Mr Bala Dan Abu, the SSA Media to the governor, Ishaku said that the alleged plot was fake and a ploy by detractors to soil the cordial relationship between the executive and legislative arms of government in the state.

“The social media was on Friday November 29, 2019, inundated with reactions to a certain unsigned fake news story containing essentially rumours of a purported impeachment plot against principal officers of the Taraba State House of Assembly including the Speaker, Abel Peter Diah.

“The article made spurious claims to the effect that Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku was the sponsor of that so-called impeachment plot and that he had committed N200 million public funds to it.

“Nothing can be more untrue. It is yet another wicked and malicious attempt to cause confusion and conflict in the relationship between the executive and legislative arms of government in Taraba State on the one hand and Governor Ishaku and Peter Diah.

“Gov Ishaku will never sponsor and did not sponsor the so-called impeachment move, if indeed there was any such move by the honourable members, let alone fund it with such a staggering amount of money from the public purse.

“The allegations are ridiculous, absolutely false and malicious. It is certainly for these reasons that the author of the article failed to sign it. Governor Ishaku wants the public to ignore this article and the lies contained in it. Governor Ishaku is an apostle of peace and will not do anything that will rock the existing level of trust and understanding between him and members of the state House of Assembly,” the statement read.

Investigation by our correspondent revealed that the Speaker had decided to throw in the towel after the camp loyal to the state governor finally got a commanding majority of the members on Sunday evening, preparatory for Monday’s impeachment.