Bauchi State governor, Mallam Isa Yuguda, yesterday, lashed out at the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Services, Yakubu Dogara, for trying to heat up the polity over the relocation of the headquarters of Tafawa Balewa Local Government to Bununu.
Yuguda, who spoke to Vanguard, said the lawmaker was merely trying to play to the gallery over a matter that had long been concluded by the State House of Assembly and which had brought about sustained peace and stability in the area.
The governor said he was surprised that Dogara, who had witnessed steady decline in the destruction of lives and property since the exercise was carried out by the House of Assembly, could turn round to castigate him and the lawmakers.
The governor said: “I know that the lawmaker is crying over spilled milk. My happiness is that the killing of innocent people has stopped since the relocation".
The governor’s reaction followed claim by Dogara that he illegally moved the headquarters from Tafawa Balewa to Bununu and that the action would not stand since it was in contravention of the Nigerian constitution.
After raising the alarm, Dogara called on President Goodluck Jonathan and men of goodwill to prevail on the Bauchi State House of Assembly to discontinue the move to transfer the LG headquarters to Bununu.
[caption id="attachment_154868" align="alignnone" width="400"]
*Gov. Yuguda[/caption]Dogara vowed that no amount of threat to him, including attempt to recall him from the House of Representatives, would deter him from opposing the relocation.
He said the headquarters of Tafawa Balewa LGA, which was created in 1976 and gazetted among the 774 LGAs in the country, could not just be changed and transferred to another without the approval of the National Assembly.
“It is subject to an Act of the National Assembly as the action of the State Assembly is clearly in violation of the constitution and to that extent void ab instil and of no effect whatsoever,” Dogara said at a news conference in Abuja.
“The purported foundation laying ceremony of the new Local Government Area Secretariat on 5th June 2013 in a location not recognised by the constitution is an exercise in futility and a joke carried too far by the governor.
“This unconstitutional action of the State Assembly and governor has no basis in law, logic and morality. It must be seen in its true light, as very provocative, divisive and a dangerous precedent for our nascent democracy,” he said.
According to the Dogara, the problem dated back to January 27, 2011, when violent ethno-religious crisis erupted in the town, forcing some residents of Tafawa Balewa to flee to other parts of the state.
In the wake of the crisis, the Governor of the state, Mallam Isa Yuguda, threatened to destroy the town, if there was a repeat of violence.
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