Suntai Remains Incommunicado as Acting Gov Moves to Reconstitute Cabinet

Danbaba Suntai

• NLC advises governor to resign 
• NMA offers to constitute board to ascertain Suntai’s fitness

By Wole Ayodele in Jalingo, Hammed Shittu in Ilorin, Mohammed Aminu in Sokoto and Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

Six days after addressing the people of the state, recuperating Taraba State Governor, Danbaba Suntai, has remained incommunicado.
In a video transmitted on state television last Wednesday, Suntai had addressed the people of the state during which he thanked them for their prayers for him and his family, and urged them to continue to pray for the peace and unity of the state after which he met with the leadership of the state House of Assembly.

But less than 24 hours after meeting the governor, the state assembly, in a press release signed by the speaker and endorsed by 16 of the 24-member assembly, mandated Alhaji Garba Umar to continue in office as acting governor, saying after meeting with Suntai on Wednesday, the House was convinced that he was not yet fit to administer the state.

The assembly also insisted that its visit to the governor revealed that Suntai was not the author of the letter transmitted to the House by the governor, saying he spoke in a manner that brought more doubts to his authorship of the letter.

But since his address to the people of the state, Suntai has remained incommunicado as neither has he been seen or heard in the public, though his wife Hauwa flew to Abuja on Friday and returned Saturday after meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan.

THISDAY gathered that the acting governor might reconstitute the cabinet any moment from now following the failure of some commissioners to heed his directive to disregard the dissolution of the State Executive Council (SEC) purportedly directed by Suntai.

Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media and Publicity, Chief Silvanus Giwa, had announced last Wednesday that Suntai had directed the sack of the SEC and the special advisers, just as he announced the appointments of G.T. Kataps and Mallam Aminu Jika as Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and Chief of Staff respectively.

But less than 24 hours later, the acting governor urged the people of the state to disregard the dissolution of the SEC, stating that the announcement of the dissolution and appointments was a mere attempt by a cabal to hijack the machinery of governance in the state and not a directive given by Suntai.

But rather than return to their various offices, some of the commissioners have refused to return to work, while others have complied with the acting governor’s directive and have since returned to their various offices.

Before the current political crisis in the state, the acting governor had in July relieved six commissioners and four special advisers of their appointments, one of whom resigned voluntarily over their indictment over the misappropriation of the N400 million grant from the federal government to flood victims in the state leaving only seven commissioners in the cabinet before last Wednesday’s dissolution.

Among the commissioners that have handed over the affairs of their ministries are Emmanuel Bello who was Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, and supervised the Ministry of Agriculture; Hon. Iliya Wanapia, Commissioner for Finance, who also supervised the Ministry of Works; and Mr. G.T. Kataps, who was Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and equally supervised the Ministry of Health before he was named SSG.

However, Alhaji Haruna Hadi Lau, Commissioner for Sports and Youth Development, who is also supervising the Ministry of Water Resources and Rural Development; Hon. Katakata, Commissioner for Commerce and Industry; Hon. Isa Musa, Commissioner for Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, who also supervises the Ministry of Education; and Hon. Danfulani Kwetaka, Commissioner for Environment, and also in charge of the Ministry of Women Affairs, are yet to hand over to their various permanent secretaries.

THISDAY sources said the acting governor might have bowed to pressure to reconstitute the cabinet before departing to Abuja to attend the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) national convention and may announce the new cabinet this week after his return from Abuja.

THISDAY also gathered that various stakeholders and politicians have commenced intense lobbying to ensure they are either nominated or some of their loyalists are appointed into the new cabinet.

Meanwhile, reactions have continued to pour in over the political crisis in Taraba State, with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) calling on the recovering governor to resign from office without further delay.

Making this known, Deputy Vice-President of NLC, Mr. Issa Aremu, at the weekend called on the stakeholders in Taraba politics to advise Suntai to resign from office without further delay so that he could attend to his failing health.
He said: “The forces that want to keep Suntai there are not interested in the development of the state.”

Aremu, who spoke in Offa, Kwara State, on the occasion to mark the 80th birthday of Offa-born businessman, Alhaji Tiamiyu Adebisi Olatinwo, added: “What is happening in Taraba State shows the crisis of governance in Nigeria. We simply cannot live by the rules and not only that we are also not living to the basic global best practices.

“No private company will keep Suntai a day longer with his condition, yet we are talking of a state of close to two million people and you are still insisting that he governs the state despite his incapacitation.”

He said the forces that want to keep Suntai in office are not interested in the development of the state, adding: “They just want power for the sake of power and I think Nigeria has crossed that bridge from what we witnessed under the late Umaru Yar’Adua.”

In its own comment, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) expressed concern over the matter of the fitness of Suntai and advised the parties in the quagmire to abide with the provisions of the Nigerian constitution to resolve the imbroglio.

In a communiqué read by the NMA National President, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, shortly after the national executive council meeting in Sokoto yesterday, the body decried the undue controversy generated by the fitness or otherwise of Suntai and stressed the need for parties in the imbroglio to adhere strictly to the provisions of the constitution to resolve the matter.

The NMA said it was ready to make available experts among its members who are professionals in various fields of medicine to constitute a medical board to ascertain the governor’s fitness.

“The NMA also uses this opportunity to restate her call on the National Assembly to enact a law creating the Office of the Surgeon-General of Nigeria which would ordinarily have been saddled with the responsibility of assessing the medical fitness of public and political office holders.

“And thus save the nation the embarrassment caused by the question of independently ascertaining the medical fitness of our leaders,” the communiqué read.

Also, human rights activist, Comrade Moshood Erubami, yesterday said Suntai was no longer fit to rule the state and should be sacked by the state House of Assembly.

Erubami, a former chairman of Campaign for Democracy (CD), noted that the political crisis in Taraba was in contravention of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and capable of truncating the country’s democracy.

The rights activist, who spoke during a live interactive programme on the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC), stressed that the Taraba State governor should respect the constitution of the country, which he swore to uphold and vacate the governorship seat.