Taraba Crisis: Deputy Governor Heartless, Says Senator

Suntai-Garba-UmarSenator Emmanuel Bwacha, representing Taraba South Senatorial District yesterday accused the state deputy governor, Alhaji Garba Umar of plotting to overthrow his boss, Governor Danbaba Suntai.

Bwacha, who is Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, also described as “ridiculous” the position of some National Assembly members from the state who backed the House of Assembly’s resolution that Umar should continue to act as governor.

Bwacha, who spoke in Abuja, said due to desperation to assert himself, Alhaji Umar had been going round “poisoning the minds of our Muslim brothers” that people of the state do not want a Muslim to be governor.

He said the deputy governor had forgotten so soon how Governor Suntai “picked him from nowhere and made him his deputy”.

He noted that “if Suntai had liked at the time, he would have brought a Christian to be his deputy and heavens wouldn’t have fallen because it wasn’t an election.”

Bwacha said: “This man did not run election with him (Suntai), he just brought him, sent his name to the House of Assembly and he was confirmed.”

According to the Senator, “The way out of the situation, except if the deputy governor has refused that he is no longer the deputy governor; the way out is simple – the deputy governor was a deputy governor when he was brought in.

“Your principal has returned; you revert to your position of a deputy governor. But the deputy governor is refusing to revert back to his position as deputy governor.

“He wants to assert himself. What sort of heartlessness is this? He can’t be patient, for God’s sake? Has he forgotten so soon how he joined the governor?

“Barely two weeks after the governor brought him, the governor had accident. Has he thrown morality to the dust bin that he flies all over the place visiting traditional rulers in the North, telling them lies?

“Does he know that there is one God that rules over the affairs of men? Let me tell you, the deputy governor remains the deputy governor, Suntai remains the governor.

“Why is the deputy governor refusing to accept the position he was before. Must he be substantive governor before he begins to act?

“If you know that this is your principal that brought you and if loyalty is there, you can go to him. Suntai doesn’t necessarily want to come around and start jumping around as if he wants to play football. He can delegate power to his deputy to represent him anywhere. What are Nigerians talking about?”

On his conspicuous absence at the news conference addressed by some National Assembly members from Taraba on the issue, Bwacha said, “I was not there because I cannot be associated with illegality. At this level of my legislative experience, I don’t feel I can condescend so low to behave as if I were a local government councillor.”

“What do I mean by this, with due respect to my colleagues, they veered into a territory that does not belong to them.

“First and foremost, there is no law backing what they did. It was a total illegality. It is a nullity; it does not make sense. In a civilized society, nobody is expected to do what they did.

“You cannot wake up by a mere news release and ask a governor who is protected by law of the country to proceed on a sick leave.

“This is a governor who has just been discharged from a hospital in the United States and he was asked to come home and stay with his family, stay with his associates so that he can have full recovery.

“Now for you to wake up and say you are passing a resolution that he should go back for treatment that sounds ridiculous.

32 COMMENTS

  1. Aminu, point of correction. We r serving d only true God thru Jesus so be careful hw u talk. I don’t blame u its cos u lack understandg. Hw could u feel if u bring a person as ur deputy & tomarrow he tried to unseat u. Chin amana kenan & whoever does that God will revenge. D whole tin is that d deputy is bad luck to taraba st. His coming has brought bad luck of accident to d governor that leads to crises in d state. U ppl r so naïve that u can easily be brainwashd with anything esp when joined to religion. Pls be wise.

    • Kayode, shut up. You are not in Taraba state or any of the northern state for that matter, so, just mind what you say. Come and see the truth for yourself first, then you will speak reasonably but beside that, be careful not to bring unnecessary wrath of God upon yourself. Please.

  2. @aminu muslims lack peace most and will continue till the end of the world. and for those of you that follow religious bigots foolishly God is with Suntai. Truth is never said in the open places in this country.

  3. I wonder why some people have intense lust for power, how wuld Suntai who had such serious accident still want to rule instead of going back to his family for further treatment, attention and love. Suntai I pray that God heal u quickly and may he also protect us against any of such accident, but my advise to u is to give ur health more attention.” Health is wealth” people said. To hell with Power. I think that is all Garba Umar want everybody to understand Mr. Speaker. However I blamed Garba by insisting on getting over d sit, if Suntai wants back his sit even If his so called CAN is responsible for all dis, humbly allow him. My people said a roasted corn speaks for himself if it had enough burnt.

  4. What are u muslimi people talkibg abt. i bet if suntai was a muslim just like yaradua u won’t say all that. How did suntais plane even crash. Your kind of hypocrisy and ignorance is baffling. Ofcourse its muslims plotting against a christian gov come 2015 just like u people are ploting against jonathan.

  5. Ofcourse malam aminu you are a funamentalist and ignorant of the truth. Repent and be saved so that u can enjoy the real peace not the fake thing u are talking abt. You need Jesus Aminu. Even ur mohammed if he was still alive would hv turned to Christ by now.

    • Honestly, may aaaalll you say against Suntai be the fate of your family and lets see how you well you can describe the unfit health conditions of your father. I just pray may a threatening illness befall the head of your family.

  6. Taraba is not d personal property of suntai.what maters most is gud governance for d benefit of all taraba state populace , and that job must b handled by somebody who must be physically and mentally sound.so I don’t know d thrash this senanor is sayin.if suntai dies today,d state wil continue to live.

    • Sola, be careful what you say out there, you are not in Taraba neither do you know JACK about what is happening in the north. Come up to the north and live in any of the states first then you will be qualified to say something. Don’t just sit down there in the south or east and start posting words on the internet come up and feel it first.