Gov Suntai’s Letter Requesting to Resume Office Tears Taraba Assembly Lawmakers Apart

The request by the ailing Governor of Taraba state, Danbaba Suntai asking for the nod of the State House of Assembly  to resume duties as governor of the state has pitched the law makers into two major political divides.


While the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mr. Haruna Tsokwa, asked the governor to come and address them at plenary as a condition for resuming, the Majority Leader, Mr. Joseph Albasu Kunini, asked the governor to start work with immediate effect.

Speaking against the backdrop of the letter sent by the governor to the assembly, Majority leader of the House, Hon. Albasu Kunnin informed journalists that since the letter transmitted to the House by the governor had been acknowledged the governor can now go ahead and resume his office as the number one citizen of the state

Kunini in an earlier press conference in Jalingo said there was no need to table the letter sent in by Suntai to the plenary for deliberation since the constitution did not stipulate such as a requirement.

He therefore gave the nod to the governor to resume work based on his claim that he was fit enough to carry on with the task of administering the state

“There is no room in the Nigerian Constitution for the House to deliberate on the letter once it has been transmitted to the House by the governor,” Kunini told journalists.

“To us, the governor has complied with the provision of the law by sending the letter to us through his Special Adviser on Legal Matters. The letter from the governor was received by the Clerk of the Taraba Assembly and promptly handed over to the Speaker and that completed the required action.

“The Taraba State House of Assembly does not need anything other than the hard copy with the governor’s authentic signature and there is no need to discuss it at the plenary,” the House Leader explained.
But barely two hours after the press conference by the Majority Leader, the Speaker, Haruna Tsokwa, also addressed the media in his office and insisted that the Deputy Governor, Alhaji Garba Umar, remains the Acting Governor until Suntai addresses them on his state of health.

Addressing journalists in Jalingo, the state capital on Tuesday, Tsokwa said he wondered why the governor has continued to refused to address the people that gave him the mandate to ascend the number one position of the state in the last general election, stressing that allowing him to resume office without addressing the people will be “unfair to the good people of this state.”

Flanked by the deputy speaker, Hon. Tanko Maikarif, the deputy Majority Leader, Hon. Josiah Kente and some members of the House, the speaker vowed to tread all legitimate paths to frustrate plans for Suntai to govern the state by proxy

To halt possible outbreak of crisis in the House especially among the members, a sudden increase in the numbers of security operatives presently keeping vigil at the House has been observed.