Speaker of the Zamfara State House of Assembly, Sanusi Garba Rikiji, has been arrested by officials of the Department of State Service, DSS, in the state.
Also apprehended by the secret police were the deputy speaker of the Assembly, Muhammad Abubakar Gumi; the majority leader, Isah Abdulmumini and the chief whip, Abdullahi Dansadau.
It was learnt that men of the DSS arrested the principal officers of the Assembly and took them to Abuja, where they were detained.
According to Daily Trust, the lawmakers were nabbed over their alleged plan to impeach the state governor, Abdulaziz Yari.
The development, reports say, has led the remaining members of the Assembly to run to Kaduna to evade arrest.
They have now called for the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari. They accused the governor of abusing his office by allegedly ordering the arrest of the four lawmakers with the DSS.
They accused Yari of misappropriating financial allocation to the state, and failing to implement the budget in the last five years.
These allegations were made in a state issued last night by the fleeing lawmakers from their Kaduna base, which was signed by the House Committee Chairman on Information, Mannir Aliyu Gidan Jaja.
They claimed the governor could not give adequate “explanation of N1 billion commercial agriculture (CBN) loan, non-remittance of pension funds to pension administrators, non-remittance of 5 percent emirate councils funds, the gross misappropriation of bailout funds to the state by the federal government to settle workers’ salaries, including N10b for 2014 and N1.46b in 2016.”
The assembly members also accused Governor Yari of crippling governance in the state through his constant travelling abroad and his refusal to address the issues raised by them.
“Rather he resorted to political intimidation, arrest and detention of principal officers of the House and other supporting staff.”
The statement, therefore, called on President Buhari to give directive for unconditional release of the affected officers.
Meanwhile, the Zamfara State Police Commissioner, Istifanus Shattima, has said that he has deployed additional operatives to stop miscreants from disrupting normal activities at the House of Assembly.
Shattima told Daily Trust that deployment of troops to the Assembly was in response to the action of a mob which attacked the private residence of the speaker.
The attack at the speaker’s residence followed a rumour circulating in the state and the social media, to the effect that members of the House of Assembly were planning to impeach governor Yari.
When contacted to comment on the development, the state commissioner of information, Umar Jibo Bukuyum, did not pick his call or respond to a text message.
