By Soni Daniel & John Mkom

The fluid political climate in Taraba State deteriorated, yesterday, when members of the State House of Assembly ignored a state High Court injunction restraining them from clearing four persons nominated by the Acting Governor, Garba Umar, for appointment as commissioners.

This came as the court bailiff, Markus Gaddas who insisted on serving the Speaker with the court injunction was allegedly manhandled by the Speaker and his security aides.

Gaddas was at the assembly complex before arrival of the speaker and other members of the House to serve the court notice.

Justice Ali Andenyangsto had, based on a motion filed by Governor Danbaba Suntai against the House of Assembly, ordered that the members should not screen the nominees whose names were forwarded by Umar to them.

In the motion of notice dated November 11, 2013, the judge restrained the Speaker and the members not to directly or indirectly act on the list sent in by Umar, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

Suntai had filed the motion trying to stop the acting governor from stopping the dissolution of the state Executive Council, which he announced upon return from his medical trip in August.

Umar had rejected the dissolution of the council, saying that it was done by agents of the governor and not the governor himself and asked the members to stick to their posts.

But Umar in his bid to get his men into the deeply divided cabinet also sent in the names of Ate Sale Kundu, Musa Sande, Balisu Hamangabdo and Mathias Dan-Azumi to the lawmakers to screen for appointment as commissioners.

The House of Assembly relying on its laws, however went ahead and cleared the four nominees paving the way for them to be inaugurated as commissioners in the state any time from now.

Vanguard learnt that Suntai is poised to appeal against the action of the state legislators and cause them to be charged for contempt.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of the House of Assembly has denied knowledge of any court injunction restraining the house from screening the commissioners who were nominated by the Acting Governor, Alhaji  Garba Umar.
Kente spoke in his office while answering questions from journalist shortly after the screening at the chambers of the assembly.

Meanwhile, the bailiff, Gaddas stressed that when, “I went to the assembly before the arrival of the Speaker. I was directed to his office, although I did not know him in person but when he arrived then I was in the reception of his office and some one showed him to me.

“I went into his office and handed over the court order to him; he looked at it very carefully and threw it back at me. I came back to the reception and after some seconds someone came out of the office and told the security that the Speaker directed that they should take me out of the assembly complex.”

“The security escorted me out, then I removed the second order and pasted it at the main gate but one police man by name Umar Usman came and tore it and threw it in the bush”

Some members of the assembly confirmed that they walked out of the chambers because they were served with the court injunction and they were afraid of contravening high court order.

“We received the court in junction and because we are second respondents the case of Danbaba Suntai versus Taraba State House of Assembly at the high court we decided to show it to the Speaker in his office before we came to the chambers for the screening”

“We also told the Speaker that we could not participate in the screening exercise because of the court injunction, because we wanted him to know that although we are loyal to him, we cannot contravene a court order,” four of the legislators told Vanguard.