By Hamidu Sabo
Katsina
The 15 members of the Katsina state House of Assembly elected on the APC ticket yesterday dispatched an impeachment notice against Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema to the Speaker of the assembly, citing 11 “impeachable grounds”.
In the impeachment notice, they alleged among other charges that Shema embezzled over N33 billion local governments funds without recourse to their respective budgets as passed by the state House of Assembly.
Other charges were:
* Alleged squandering of about N8.5 billion from the state treasury in April 2015 without regard to the state’s budget as passed by the House of Assembly;
* Flagrant abuse and politicisation of SURE-P funds both at the state and local government levels in spite of the huge amount of money that accrued to the state treasury for the programme;
* Sale of state properties and assets worth millions of naira without following the due process and at virtually a give-away prices to himself, family members and friends.
According to them, some of the properties included the governor’s official cars and state houses in Abuja and Lagos;
* Illegal allocation of the uncompleted Katsina State Housing Estate in Abuja to relatives, friends and few well-wishers without due consideration to the due process; and
* Earmarking of N750 million for the supply of office equipment and furnitures to the newly constructed Orthopedic Hospital in Katsina and up till this time the equipments have not been supplied.
The lawmakers also accused Shema of setting aside N800 million in a budget for the supply of equipment and other facilities “at the so-called unusable Karakanda Stadium”, saying sub-standard equipment, which “are already in a state of dilapidation”, were supplied.
They further said the governor mismanaged the ecological funds paid to the state by the federal government.
They also listed an alleged “biased and corrupt self-payment and that of his deputy of about N600 million” as severance gratuity as against the token sum of N150 million the governor paid his predecessors in spite the fact that he failed to pay pensioners their entitlements of over eight months.
The lawmakers argued that the governor had attempted to cover up “his 8 year shoddy deals” by trying to have his “anointed godson and protégé”, Musa Nashuni, elected during the recent governorship poll, a move resisted by the people of the state.
According to them, the governor has, now more than ever before, “turned Katsina state resources into his complete personal estate. This is evident in his blatant disregard to sacrosanct laws, abuse of office, high handedness, irresponsibility, family aggrandizement and many other unbecoming and unwholesome attitudes that are repugnant to natural justice, equity, common sense and good conscience.”
They, therefore, told the Speaker that based on these accusations, “nothing can be apt and most befitting for Governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema than impeachment as provided by the provision of Section 188 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.”
The threatened that the impeachment process must commence immediately, “otherwise, we shall waste no time in seeking for an ‘Order of Mandamus’ before a court of competent jurisdiction against you.”
