Taraba Crisis: Suntai Supporters Warn Tukur Against Taking Sides

SuntaiThe immediate past Commissioner for Information in Taraba State, Mr. Emmanuel Bello, who was among those purportedly sacked by ailing governor Danbaba Suntai, has asked the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, to be guided on the constitution while commenting on the political crisis in the state.

He maintained that Suntai was fully in charge of affairs in the state and was not ruling by proxy as alleged by the chairman.

Tukur was reported as telling newsmen that soon after the special national convention of the party which held yesterday, he would lead team to Taraba State to ascertain exactly what is happening there as the party would not accept a situation where a state could be governed by proxy.

Bello, in a statement in Jalingo on Saturday berated the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Haruna Tsokwa, of flouting the provisions of the constitution just as he warned Tukur against taking sides in the ongoing impasse.

The statement said, “Bamanga should respect the constitution as he wades into the Taraba crisis and he must make the nation’s constitution as his guide.

“Our country is guided by the constitution and we cannot afford to be lawless; the people perpetrating illegality are those saying they have no regard for the constitution.

“The Speaker of the Taraba State House of Assembly, Haruna Tsokwa, has said he is not interested in what the constitution says. In rejecting Suntai’s letter, he kept saying ‘as far as I am concerned’. He is not interested in the constitution as he is entrenching a strange thing in our national life. I believe he hasn’t read the constitution and if he has, he does not understand its provisions.”

He added, “Tukur should enforce the provisions of the constitution as it relates to the Taraba debacle. If Tukur takes sides in the ongoing imbroglio, we shall vehemently resist him.”