A Yola High Court on Thursday dismissed an application by the embattled Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State seeking to restrain the state House of Assembly from proceeding with the impeachment move against him until the determination of the substantive suit.
Justice Ambrose Mamadi, who is the acting Chief Judge of the state, while ruling on the application filed by Nyako?s counsel, Kanu Agabi SAN, said the lawmakers did not violate any provisions of Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, adding that the move was to pre-empt the legislators, who had 24 hours earlier instructed the acting CJ to constitute a seven-man panel to investigate the 20 charges of gross misconduct levelled against the governor and the six counts of similar charges brought against the deputy governor.
The House had two weeks ago asked the clerk to serve the impeachment notices on the duo who have been inaccessible ever since, forcing the lawmakers to serve them through the media.
Nyako, in the eight-page impeach ment notice, is accused of mismanagement of public funds running into several billions of Naira.
Meanwhile, Agabi, who was represented by Ayo Akam, said that the ruling did not affect the substantive case before the court.
Also the state secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Barrister Tahir Shehu, while welcoming the ruling, said the development has ?cleared the coast for the lawmakers to continue with their constitutional responsibilities of checkmating the activities of government officials in the state.?