By Sam Egburonu,Onoja Audu, and Rafiu Ajakaye
8th October

Osoba told Sunday Independent at the weekend that there were some unseen hands behind the Plateau drama, arguing that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), could not possibly do what it is doing unilaterally.

"It is most unfortunate and very disgraceful," he said, adding, "It is a bastardisation of the 1999 Constitution because that constitution provides that one-third of the members of the House must vote for an impeachment notice to be served. The House also requires two-third majority vote to request the Chief Judge of the state to constitute a panel."

Lar also on Saturday berated the Presidency and the EFCC over the same incidient, describing it as absurd.

Aturu spoke in the same vein when he described the development as an absurdity that contravenes the provisions of the Constitution.

According to him, "at least one-third of the lawmakers must append their signatures to the notice, failing which the process becomes null."

Plateau State has 24 lawmakers, but seven, instead of eight members signed the impeachment notice.

In its own reaction too, the AC said the way the Plateau State matter was handled amounted to an unacceptable show of shame, describing it as democracy of coercion.

Lar expressed worry over the development in Plateau at a press briefing in Jos on Saturday noted that EFCC had continued in its familiar terrain of reckless, lawless and unconstitutional conduct despite the fact that some well-meaning Nigerians had had cause to caution the anti-graft body over its actions in the recent past, which he said posed grave dangers to the survival of the country’s democracy .

The elder statesman regretted that rather than heed to advice, "EFCC has continued to carry out its ignoble engagements in which they were law unto themselves.

He further expressed disgust at the preferential treatment extended to some members of the Plateau House of Assembly by the EFCC when all of them should be facing the same charges of collecting constituency allowances.

He stressed that the recent act of EFCC demonstrated clearly that all they wanted was the impeachment of governor Dariye through the back door.

While calling on the presidency to call EFCC to order, Lar said that the whole idea of taking his statelegislators to court was a deliberated ploy to add to their suffering and make them yield to the whims and caprices of the commission.

He lamented that the members were not being punished for an offence they had committed, but for finding out that the EFCC had no case against the governor.

Said Lar: "Nigerians should know that EFCC up till today has failed to answer the simple question of who refunded the N100 million governor Dariye gave to PDP. The whole world now knows the answer to the simple question the EFCC evaded answering, yet they faulted the state assembly for throwing away their complaint. The inconsistency and hidden agenda is best illustrated when we recall that they had similarly arrested all the members of the Bayelsa House of Assembly for receiving N100 million as constituency project allowance, but as soon as they agreed to impeach their governor, the case fizzled out and has not been heard ever since."

Aturu accepts that corrupt persons be pushed out of public offices, but warned against politicians "raping the law" to achieve their motives.

Because the number of legislators that signed the Plateau impeachment notice was not up to the number that should sign for an impeachment notice, Aturu maintained that the impeachment plot from its foundation, was an illegality. "It is a violation of the unambiguous provision of section 188 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and so, of no effect whatsoever," he said.

He described the action of some members of the Plateau Assembly as a national embarrassment; an indication that certain people were bent on disrupting the democracy, and a challenge to democrats to step up their campaigns against unconstitutionalities.

The activist added: "We will not be tired of insisting that while all corrupt government officials must be removed, the removal must be done through due process. We will not tolerate or condone rape of our laws. We are in a country under the rule of law and not under the whims and caprices of certain individuals. It is corruption to fight corruption through unconstitutional means.

"My message to the impeachment merchants in Abuja and the EFCC, which regrettably seems to be facilitating the nonsense in Plateau, is that we will not surrender this country to their authoritarian and Gestapo methods.

AC condemned the tactics employed by eight members of Plateau State House of Assembly on Thursday, October 5, 2006, in commencing an impeachment proceeding against Dariye.

The party said the way the matter was handled amounted to an unacceptable show of shame.

Describing the action of the lawmakers as "undemocratic tactics," AC warned that "abandoning due process in handling alleged corruption and other cases, just to achieve some pre-determined goals, is tantamount to democracy by coercion, which does not augur well for our fledgling democracy."

Lai Mohammed, Chairman, Media and Publicity of AC said a situation where eight of the 24 Plateau lawmakers, guarded by over 400 policemen and officials of the EFCC, were ferried from Abuja to Jos to meet and pass resolutions to remove the Speaker, Mr. Simon Lalong, and to serve a notice of impeachment on Governor Dariye, was undemocratic and therefore unacceptable.

He said, "While AC will like to state, for the umpteenth time that we are against corruption under any guise, we will also like to warn that resorting to underhand, undemocratic and dangerous tactics to remove a democratically-elected official, ostensibly over corruption allegations, could endanger our hard-earned democracy."