THE INSIDER: Drama in Taraba… Suntai goes missing and the hunter is hunted

The unfolding story in Taraba state reads like a thriller: the governor survives a plane crash, loses his memory, is replaced in the interim by his deputy who then schemes to unseat him… and the deputy too is about to be unseated before his plan materialises.

Meanwhile, Governor Danbaba Suntai, still recovering from the mishap and expected to face a medical panel,  has gone “missing”, apparently to escape examination.

Speaking to the BBC Hausa service on Monday, the acting governor of Taraba state, Alhaji Garba Umar, raised the alarm that the speaker of the house of assembly, Mr. Josiah Kente, was planning an impeachment against him.

Suntai had been involved in an air mishap in October 2012 and has clearly not regained the medical fitness to return to office, having suffered a reported brain damage. But his associates are refusing to throw in the towel, creating the impression that Suntai is on the way to recovery and would soon return to office.

Umar, meanwhile, is obviously aware that the governor is not likely to return to office again and has been plotting to take over substantively, sacking Suntai’s appointees and appointing his own loyalists to replace them as soon as he stepped in as acting governor in 2013. Umar’s game plan was very clear from day one.

The state was politically fractured as tensions rose: it got so ridiculous that the state effectively has two persons holding the position of secretary to the state government (SSG) ─ Timothy Kataps, loyal to Suntai, and Garvey Yawe, loyal to Umar.

Medical panel

After being snubbed at the Abuja airport last week when Suntai returned from a medical trip abroad, Umar got the state executive council to resolve that a medical panel be set up to ascertain the state of health of the governor ─ in accordance with the provisions of section 189 (b) and 189 (4) of the constitution.

Kente promptly set up a panel headed by Bala Shehu. Other others: Ahmed Kara (Suntai’s personal physician, as required by law); Peter Alabi, Shehu Sule and Inusa Samaila.

Umar must have smiled to himself that everything was going according to plan until he started hearing rumours that Kente also has his eyes on the governor’s seat. If the medical panel declares Suntai unfit, the house will have to impeach him.

And, wait a minute… Umar may not become governor, after all.

Fintiri formula

Kente, TheCable learnt, is planning the Fintiri Formula ─ a replication of what the speaker of Adamawa house of assembly, Alhaji Ahmadu Fintiri, did when he got both the governor and the deputy out of the way in order to become acting governor.

Vice Admiral Murtala Nyako was accused by the Adamawa lawmakers of corruption and gross misconduct and removed as governor, while his deputy, Mr. Bala Ngilari ─ who should ordinarily have taken over ─ was also impeached.

Fintiri, as acting governor, is also the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the October 11 by-election, and there is yet no law barring him from running again in 2015 after completing Nyako’s tenure.

Kente has taken his inspiration from Fintiri, and Umar ─ who was hunting his boss ─ is now being hunted.

Suntai AWOL

“I don’t even know what offence I committed that would warrant my impeachment,” Umar told the BBC, adding: “It is 22 months now that I have been acting as the governor. I have never thought of anything like impeachment. I have been obedient to my boss, yet people will always say he is coming back to take over power. That is why we are trying to ascertain his health condition and then inform the world.”

But the drama promises to last longer. For the medical panel to reach a conclusion on the state of Suntai’s health, they must examine him. For them to examine him, they must have access to him.

“As I talk to you, nobody in the panel knows the whereabouts of Suntai,” a commissioner told TheCable, asking not to be named for political reasons.

They actually know the whereabouts of Suntai ─ he is in Abuja, nestling at the home of former army chief, Gen. TY Danjuma, who is also from Taraba state. Danjuma is determined to frustrate the plan to impeach the governor.

“Will the panel break into Danjuma’s fortified house to examine Suntai? No way,” a former aide to the governor told TheCable, while also expressing disappointment with Kente’s plan of double impeachment.

Incidentally, Kente may also end up hunted as Umar is also said to be moving against him in the house. The acting governor is planning a fight back and is already in discussion with some of the Taraba lawmakers to checkmate Kente.

Expect more drama in Taraba in the weeks ahead.