By AMAKA DIKE, Jos, UMAR AFEGBUA, Abuja and TEMITOPE OGUNBANKE, Lagos

"Governor Dariye's days are numbered in the Government House", Mantu was reported to have declared yesterday.

Dariye who spoke while addressing his supporters in Jos at the weekend, cited the constitution, which says that at least two-thirds of the 24-member state assembly must vote in favor to begin the process.

Six lawmakers in the custody of federal authorities on corruption charges, were escorted by armed police guards to Jos on Friday, to impeach the governor for alleged corruption.

The governor's supporters have accused the federal government of direct responsibility for the impeachment attempt and have pooh-poohed the attempt by only six members in the 24-seat assembly to undertake an impeachment process.

But Dariye during his address, asked them to remain calm and avoid any violent conduct that will breach the existing peace in the state.

"I appeal for calm," he said. "I appeal for calm. Two wrongs do not make a right. Let us go back to our homes. I am going to address the state, and I believe appropriate measures will be taken."

NewAge gathered that situation in Plateau State was gradually deteriorating that may warrant imposition of another emergency rule.

President Obasanjo had imposed emergency rule in Plateau state in 2004, and suspended Dariye, following sectarian clashes which resulted in the death of several hundred.

Meanwhile, to forestall possible break down of law and order in Jos city with a diverse mix of ethnic groups, hundreds of soldiers have been deployed to strategic points in the streets. The move New Age learnt was as a result of Friday's clashes between riot police and demonstrators protesting the attempted impeachment of the state governor, where Police were alleged to have fired into a crowd of supporters of the governor killing at least one person.

"The soldiers are out in long convoys patrolling the streets of Jos. "They are also being complemented by regular police at major checkpoints, at entry points into Jos. When people see the security men in convoys there is some apprehension," a resident of Jos disclosed.

Meanwhile, as the Plateau crisis remains on the boil, the Action Congress has declared that the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC was incompetent to declare the seats of the 14 plateau state legislators who recently decamped to the Advanced Congress of Democrats party vacant.

In a release issued in Abuja yesterday reacting to media reports that INEC has declared the seats of the 14 Plateau state legislators vacant and has tentatively scheduled by-elections for the seats for the 20th of October 2006, the Action Congress explained that the issue of decamping from party to the other is governed by section 106 and 109 of the constitution. In this case, says the party, the members of the Plateau State house of Assembly who decamped from the PDP to ACD are fully protected by the constitution as it is Public knowledge that there is a division within the PDP.

The party further stressed that in the absence of a recall by the relevant constituency or a valid declaration of vacancy by a properly constituted House and a properly elected speaker, INEC has absolutely no role to play in this matter.

The Action Congress warned the INEC and the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) not to institutionalize unconstitutionality.

It said the current situation in Plateau state was a desecration of the constitution as the constitution in Section 91 and Section 92 is unambiguous that a Speaker can only be removed by not less than two thirds (2/3) majority of members. In this case it will require at least 16 members of the House of Assembly to remove the duly elected speaker in person of Simon Lalong, the party said.

It appealed to all well meaning Nigerians, the professional class, the Nigerian Bar Association and others to speak up in defence of the constitution, democracy and the rule of law. It claimed that the ugly scenario in Ekiti and Plateau states have been made possible because Nigerians refused to speak out against the desecration and bastardization of our constitution and democracy earlier on in Bayelsa and Oyo states.

Also, the Pan Yoruba socio-cultural and political organisation, Afenifere yesterday described the violent turn of events in Plateau State as a fallout of the renewed bid to unseat Governor Joshua Dariye by any crooked means necessary.

According to a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Yinka Odumakin, Afenifere stressed that there have been reports of arson, killing, maiming and wanton destruction of property in the state following a mass revolt against the attempt by a six-man Plateau “House of Assembly” based in Abuja to sit and continue the impeachment process against Governor Dariye.

“It is said that the little minds who are in charge of coercive apparatus in our country today have failed to learn from the ruinous path of the past. The First Republic collapsed out of the sheer misuse of Federal might to effect a regime change in the Western Region.