Taraba Celebrates Acting Governor’s Removal With A Deafen Silence

Thursday, 4 December 2014

Taraba Celebrates Acting Governor’s Removal With A Deafen Silence

The Supreme Court on 21 November ordered the immediate reinstatement of the former Deputy Governor of Taraba State, Alhaji Sanni Abubakar Danladi, two years after he was impeached.

The court concluded that the impeachment panel set up by the Taraba House Of Assembly to investigate accusations level against Danladi disregarded his rights to fair hearing.

Following Governor Dambaba Suntai’s ill health that resulted from a plane crash in November 2012, Garba Umar (UTC) then replaced Danladi and he became the Acting Governor.

However, the Acting Governor Umar who initiated the impeachment panel for Danladi governed the State for two years, making decisions that were “illegal”, since his appointment as Deputy Governor was also an act of illegality.

The wheel of martial equilibrium yet spin with a slow pace of justice as Garba Umar was unseated by the Supreme Court.

Suntai may have later become an ally of Danladi, but it is a fact that Danladi could not have been removed without Suntai’s approval. The ease of removing deputy governors persists, though constitutional provisions should make it tough.

Tarabians are celebrating the quiet victory that again emphasised the right to fair hearing, often a mute point when the might set out their interests.