Zamfara Assembly suspends two lawmakers over banditry involvement
Two members of Zamfara House of Assembly, Yusuf Muhammad Anka and Ibrahim Tukur Bakura, have been suspended for three months after the conclusion of investigations over allegations of their involvement in banditry.
They represent Anka and Bakura constituencies in the Assembly.
The suspended members are to appear before the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges with security agencies assigned to investigate them.
During the plenary session presided over by Speaker Nasiru Magarya, a member representing Maru North constituency, Yusuf Alhassan Kanoma, alleged the two members masterminded the killing of late Muhammad Ahmad, a former Assembly member representing Shinkafi constituency through connivance with bandits in a recorded phone conversation.
Kanoma called on the security agencies to fully track all their telephone lines and listen to all their conversations, advising his colleagues to suspend them from all House activities for an initial period of three months pending the conclusion of investigations.
Speaker Magarya approved the suspension of the two members for the initial period of three months.
Magarya also directed the chairman House Committee on Ethics and Privileges Kabiru Hashimu Dansadau to fully investigate the suspended members and report its findings back to the plenary in the next three months.
While expressing his dismay over their alleged involvement in banditry, the Speaker also stripped them off of the chairmanship of the House Standing Committees.
He assigned Yusuf Alhassan Kanoma to oversee the Works and Transport Committee hitherto chaired by Yusuf Muhammad Anka and directed Nasiru Atiku Gora to take charge of the Humanitarian and Social Development Committee from Ibrahim Tukur Bakura.
But Anka dismissed the allegation of his involvement in banditry as false, saying his suspension was due to the recent impeachment moves against Magarya over incapacitation.
Anka told reporters he spearhead the move to impeach the Speaker in the last two months, explaining his suspension was a conspiracy from the Speaker to stop the move.
He claimed to have been threatened by the Speaker to drop the impeachment move, which he refused.
He also alleged Governor Bello Matawalle personally called and threatened him over the impeachment move.
The Governor, he further alleged sent former Finance Minister Bashir Yuguda to broker peace, leading members of the movement to suspend their intention to impeach the Speaker.
He also debunked the allegation that he and his suspended refused to take the new ‘Oath of self- distancing’ on banditry recently introduced by Governor Matawalle.