[MUST READ & SHARE] Impeachment: Jonathan’s peace moves were rebuffed – Lawmaker via @iKanzee_RR

Lafia – Mr Tanko Maikatako, Minority Leader,
Nasarawa State House of Assembly, has
revealed that President Goodluck Jonathan’s
efforts to amicably settle the dispute between
the lawmakers and Gov. Umaru Almakura were
rejected.
“The President’s efforts toward peace were not
successful due to selfishness among the law
makers,” Maikatako (APC), who represents
Lafia Central constituency, said on Wednesday
in Lafia.
According to him, Jonathan had appealed to
the lawmakers to opt for dialogue rather than
impeaching Al-Makura, but that the
legislators insisted on removing the governor.
“The President met with us and appealed to us
to go back and meet with the governors to
iron out the issues, but the members refused,”
he said.
Maikatako said he was very surprised at that
development.
“We don’t know why it happened that way. If
the president himself, the PDP leader in the
country, appeals to his colleagues to return to
Nasarawa, meet the governor to iron out
issues, they should have come back,” he
opined.
Maikatako frowned at the attitude of his 20
colleagues and declared that their insistence
on ignoring Jonathan’s peace offer
snowballed into the political crisis.
“Their resolve to go ahead with the
impeachment of Gov. Umaru Al-Makura was
selfishly motivated,” said Maikatako, who
claimed that the lawmakers did not have an
iota of evidence to substantiate their claims
against Al-Makura.
“They abandoned all the allegations they
levelled against the governor; that means that
the allegations were baseless. One can
therefore conclude that the panel did its job.
“As it is, the lawmakers must come back. That
was what Mr President advised them to do;
they must meet the governor and iron out the
issues,” he said.
He appealed to his colleagues to return back
to the state to tackle issues that were
beneficial and had direct bearing on the lives
of the electorate “instead of looking for ‘every
trick’ to oust the governor”.
“It is not too late for us to achieve much for
our people. Let the law makers come back so
that we can continue our work.
“There are lots of executive bills that are of
immense benefit to the electorate. We
resumed yesterday (Tuesday), but they are
nowhere to be found,” he said.
The investigative panel set up by the Chief
Judge, Justice Umaru Dikko, to investigate
allegations of gross misconduct levelled
against Al-Makura, on Tuesday dismissed the
allegations for lack of evidence as the
lawmakers refused to appear to substantiate
their claims. (NAN)