The Kaduna State House of Assembly has threatened to take legal action against a former governor of the state, Nasir El-Rufai, for allegedly calling them “stark illiterates.”

The members of the House described the allegation as a defamation of their character.

The chairman of the House Committee on Information, Henry Marah, stated this on Tuesday while responding to some allegations made by the ex-governor against the assembly.

He said, “I wish to remind the former governor that all the honourable members of the assembly have met the constitutional requirement to contest and win their various elections. This is enshrined in Section 106 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended). The former governor also alleged that the assembly does not have the capacity to probe his government/administration. It is also disheartening to note that the governor is ignorant of the provisions of the constitution, specifically sections 128 and 129 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended). This empowers the assembly to conduct investigations on any matter or thing with respect to which it has power to make laws.’’

Mr Marah denied the former governor’s allegation that the report of the ad-hoc committee that investigated his government was written by someone else.

He said that the assembly was discharging its duties and constitutional responsibilities by carrying out the investigation.

According to him, the former governor remains indicted until the committee report is successfully challenged in court.

He added that findings of the committee against the governor were in the public domain.

He said, “On the relief of the former executive chairman, Kaduna Internal Revenue Service, Abubakar Zaid, of his appointment, the honourable speaker, Yusuf Dahiru, has no powers to hire or fire any appointed officer in the state.’’

Mr El-rufai made the allegations on a Freedom Radio discussion programme on Monday.

(NAN)