NASARAWA IMPEACHMENT: Lawmakers allege threat to life

Two lawmakers in the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Mohammed Muluku and Maikeffi Ego have alleged that there were assassination attempts on them. The lawmakers who spoke with Premium Times on Wednesday said gunmen in unregistered vehicles trailed them and threatened to kill them. They said they had reported the incidents to the police but did not accuse anyone of the alleged attacks. According to Muluku, the gunmen mistook his brother, Sani, for him and attacked him at about 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday when he came out in one of the lawmaker’s cars. Mr. Muluku said the gunmen took Sani to Akurba road around Shendam road, Lafia, few kilometres from the state assembly complex. He said they tied Sani to another occupant of the car and threw them into the bush before setting the car ablaze. “The incident involved my younger brother, Sani, and one other person whom they slept in my house in Lafia together. And on their way going back to Nasarawa Eggon they were attacked,” the lawmaker said. “They brought them out of the car which they mistook it was me because it was one of my vehicles and tied their faces with wrappers and dumped them in a bush so that they couldn’t trace their way back home until after some time.” Mr. Muluku, who claimed it was an assassination attempt on his life, said he was informed that the alleged assassins were armed with guns and drove an ash-coloured Peugeot 406 saloon car with no number plate. On his part, the Assembly Clerk said youth armed with guns and machete stopped him while driving out of his house. “When I was coming out of my house I saw a vehicle coming from my left wing I just decided to park, all of a sudden the vehicle came and blocked me,” Mr. Ego said. “Then I saw three people coming out of the vehicle while others were inside the car.” “They asked me to wind down the glass meanwhile I was on phone but I had to answer them before one of them opened the door of the passenger side and flashed torch on my face and started shouting ‘it is him.’” He said he then sped off to the police station to report the incident. He added that the gunmen drove in a Toyota Sienna SUV car. When contacted, the police spokesperson in Nasarawa, Ismaila Numan, confirmed that the police had received the complaint of the attack on Sani and was investigating the incident. He said he was yet to get the report of the attack on the Clerk. Mr. Muluku is one of the lawmakers in support of the planned impeachment of the state governor, Umaru Al-Makura; while the clerk eventually served the impeachment notice on the governor through the media after claiming Mr. Al-Makura’s security details prevented personal service. The lawmakers accused the governor of financial impropriety, an allegation denied by the governor.