By Ismail Auwal
The Bauchi State House of Assembly on Friday got enmeshed in a leadership crisis as 22 members passed vote of no confidence on the Speaker and other principal officers.
The Speaker, Abubakar Suleiman, earlier defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party on which he was elected as a lawmaker, to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
With his defection, the APC currently has 16 members while the PDP has 15.
Interestingly, the 22 members who passed the vote of no confidence on the Speaker and other principal officers, comprised seven members of the PDP and 15 from the APC.
The Deputy Majority Leader of the Assembly, Baballe Dambam (APC) representing the Dambam/Dagauda/Jalam Constituency, who led the 22 lawmakers, declared that the leadership of the House had failed in its responsibility to the members.
They, therefore, called on the leadership to voluntarily resign from their various offices or be impeached any moment from now.
The leader of the 22 members who addressed journalists at the end of a meeting they held at the Assembly complex, said, “After our meeting held today, Friday, 1st July 2022, 22 members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly resolved to pass a vote of no confidence on the leadership of the House from today.
“We consider that as it is today, there is no leadership in the State House of Assembly, I am among the leaders but we feel that it is the right time and we must do it. We have therefore passed a vote of no confidence on all the leaders of the Bauchi State House of Assembly.
“We are calling on the leaders of the Bauchi State House of Assembly to honourably tender their resignation letters to the Clerk of the Assembly. That will allow the Honorable House the opportunity to elect its leaders in order to forge ahead.”
The aggrieved lawmakers also called on the state governor, Bala Mohammed, to be neutral in the affairs of the House and assured him that their action was not, in any way, trying to sabotage his administration.
