Taraba: Court grants acting gov extension of time

A Jalingo High Court, presided over by Justice Ali Andeyangsto, has granted the Acting Governor of Taraba State, Alhaji Garba Umar, more time to study the summons served on him by Governor Danbaba Suntai, in the battle over who controls the affairs of the Government House in Jalingo.

Danbaba had dragged his deputy and members of the House of Assembly to court, claiming that the defendants had no power under Section 91, sub section II of the constitution to subject to debate a letter he transmitted to the House, informing the members of his intention to resume work after 10 months of treatment in Germany and US.

The governor was out of the country for 10 months to receive treatment for injuries sustained when a small aircraft flown by him crashed last year.

At the resumed hearing of the case on Thursday, both parties agreed that for fair hearing, it was pertinent to grant the defendants extension of time as some of the papers had just been served on them.

Counsel to the three parties, Danbaba, Umar and the House, agreed that the case be adjourned to Tuesday to enable them peruse the summons and be able to file their responses appropriately.

Lead counsel to the plaintiff, Dr. Alex Izinyon (SAN), said, “Today is the day for both parties to appear and which we have all done, and some process were served on them yesterday (Wednesday) and they needed sometime to respond to those processes which was served on them.”

Lead counsel to the House, Adebayo Adelodun (SAN), agreed that the first sitting “is all right.”

“We had thought that we could make some progress today but lead service of some of the processes on the defence has made it impossible because naturally we are entitled to whatever had been filed, we are entitled to make our response to it. So, a situation of helplessness was forced on everybody,” he added.

Meanwhile, a Senator, Emmanuel Bwacha, has said that Suntai has no constitutional power to transfer his functions to either his deputy or anyone else.

He said this at a dinner held at the IBB Golf Club, Abuja, on Wednesday.

The legislator, who represents Taraba South, said the political crisis in the state had the imprint of external interference.

Bwacha said the issue on ground did not warrant the setting up of a committee by the national headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party, submitting that the Taraba crisis was “purely an internal affair of the state.”

The Senator explained that stakeholders in the state were already in court to seek an interpretation of relevant sections of the Constitution to resolve the impasse.

He further explained that the political crisis had to do with the difficulty of the deputy governor to revert to his original position.

Bwacha said, “The governor has no power under the Constitution to transfer his functions to anyone else.

“He has no such powers to transfer his powers to his deputy. The power within his control is to resign as a governor.

“I think some of the issues, some of the problems, some of the confusion in place are problems that could be sorted out if the key players involved mean well for the state. The Constitution allows him to resign but he has no power under the law to transfer his own power to another person.”

PUNCH