By Iro Dan Fulani

Chairman of Hydro Source and Resources and owner of M. A. Bello & Com., Maiwada Baba, whom the Adamawa State House of Assembly on Wednesday accused of allegedly absconding after collecting the sum of N300 million for the construction of the Mubi byepass, has threatened to sue the parliament if the claim is not publicly retracted.

Baba who was speaking through his counsel, Sunday Joshua Wugira, said the allegation by the House that he refused to mobilize to site after collecting N300 million was false and tarnishes the reputation he has built for over 20years in the construction industry.

Baba said although the Speaker of the Assembly, Ahmadu Fintiri, had already tendered his unreserved apologies for the accusation through a letter of retraction, he may still file a defamation suit if the House fail to publicly apologise.

He said it was wrong for the Assembly to blame the construction firm for the failure of the Adamawa State Works ministry to demarcate a portion for the said contract job and that until that is done, he cannot be said to have abandoned the job.

The contractor further claimed that he was still being owed N500 million by the Adamawa State government.

Members of Adamawa House of Assembly on Wednesday also levelled 26 allegations of “gross misconduct” against Governor Murtala Nyako and his deputy, Bala Ngilari, and served the duo an impeachment notice.

Some of the allegations against Nyako included diversion of N2.3 billion workers’ salary for September and October 2011, illegal deductions and diversion of N142 million emoluments of workers in May 2014.

The governor was also alleged to have squandered N4.8 billion and N7.1 billion in 2012 and 2013 respectively, through the office of the secretary to the government against budgetary approvals.

The legislators also accused the deputy governor of diverting N50 million released to him by the Ministry of Finance to acquire license for the exploration of solid minerals in 2008.

They accused Ngilari of misleading Nyako to invest in mineral exploration that turned out to be a bad investment, adding that the deputy governor was involved in extra-budgetary expenditure to the tune of N397 million as overhead cost in 2013.

The governor and his deputy were in Abuja on official assignment when the legislators served them the impeachment notice.