The Zamfara House of Assembly has commenced the impeachment process against the Deputy Governor of the state, Mahdi Aliyu.

This is contained in a statement issued in Gusau on Friday by the spokesman to the legislature, Mustafa Jafaru-Kaura.

According to the statement, the move followed a presentation of impeachment notice by the Deputy Speaker of the house, Nasiru Magarya.

“As part of the provision of Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that empowers legislatures to commence impeachment moves of a governor or his deputy on allegations of constitutional breaches, wrongdoing or abuse of office.

“Therefore, today the Deputy Speaker and Chairman House Committee on Public Accounts presented a formal request notifying the speaker of the House move to impeach Barr. Mahdi Aliyu Muhammad Gusau as the Deputy Governor of the state,” Mr Jafaru-Kaura said.

“The Deputy Speaker accused the Deputy Governor, Mahdi Aliyu-Gusau, for alleged constitutional breaches, abuse of office and financial misappropriation, which are all impeachable offences, and added that Section 188 of the 1999 Constitution empowered them to commence impeachment process against the Deputy Governor without further delay.”

Responding, the Speaker promised that the assembly would look into the allegations against the deputy governor and act appropriately according to the provisions of the Constitution.

There has been no love lost between Mr Aliyu and Governor Bello Matawalle since the latter decamped to the All Progressives Congress (APC) with the deputy choosing to stay with now opposition party PDP.

(NAN)