Senator David Umaru on Sunday disclosed that he did not take any blood oath to keep mum and so cannot be gagged by the Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, and the All Progressives Congress.
Umaru, representing the people of Niger East Senatorial District and a member of the APC, made this disclosure while addressing journalists in Minna.
He said it is only hypocritical for the party to ask him not to speak if things are going wrong.
Umaru said if there is anything he has done or spoken about, it was because he believes that what is happening in Niger State is unfortunate.
According to him: “I never took blood oath or any kind of oath at all not to speak the truth or that if I see anything I should keep quiet.
“I cannot be gagged by anybody.
“Nobody can stop me from speaking for and on behalf of my people.
“Even the party cannot.
“I swore to defend the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a senator and my duty is to the country and the people of my constituency.
“My responsibility to APC is another thing.
“The party I think is being hypocritical because in one of their briefings, someone told me not to speak with the press again, but when they wanted to speak to me, the party went to the press.
“Asking me not to go to press is hypocritical.
“I will advice that the APC concentrates in building the party and getting new members, which is its primary responsibility.”
Umaru reiterated that the governor should respect the Federal Character Commission’s principle on equity in the appointments officers into his cabinet.
He said: “The APC should advice Governor Bello to respect equity so that everybody in the state can have a feel of belonging.
“When issue like this happen, they should advice the governor that there is need to have equity.
“I still maintain that the distribution of offices that has been appointed so far is not equitable and Niger East has been shortchanged.
“I equally disagree that the governor has a blank cheque to make appointments as he likes as far as the issues of statutory offices are concerned.
“For this I will refer to Article 208, sub section 4, which requires the governor to make the appointment of the Secretary to the State Government and Head of Service having regards to the diversity and principles of FCC.
“The same governor has taken an oath schedule of seventh of 1999 Constitution, which enjoins him to defend the constitution and also strive to comply with Chapter 2 of the Constitution, which stipulates the fundamental objectives and directive principle of state policies.
“This means that if the governor is from Zone C, his Deputy from Zone A, the next highest position under the constitution is SSG.
“Equity demands that it should go to zone B.
“The Chief of Staff position is not recognised by the constitution.
“The Governor and the SSG both come from the same local government area, whereas there are 8 local government areas in the zone.
“So, you can see the way it is.
“Zone A has Deputy governor, Chief Press Secretary, Chief of Protocol and Head of Service.”
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