FAMILY AND FRIENDS ADVISE NYAKO TO RESIGN BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.

Close associates, party elders and spouses of embattled Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa State have reportedly advised him to resign honourably to stave off his looming impeachment by members of the state House of Assembly.

•Murtala Nyako

P.M.NEWS gathered that Nyako’s associates and family membersarrived at this conclusion following yesterday’s sitting of the seven-member panel constituted by the state’s acting Chief Judge to investigate allegations levelled against him by the lawmakers.

Members of the panel yesterday defied the two-day holidays declared by Governor Nyako and commenced sitting at the J&J Holiday Villa, Yola to deliberate on the allegations levelled against the governor and his deputy, Bala James Ngilari, by the lawmakers.

Investigations revealed that the resignation option was chosen by Nyako’s associates following a series of meetings held in Yola on Monday to deliberate on the insistence of the seven-man panel to commence sitting despite the public holidays declared by the governor.

At one of the meetings, political associates of the governor as well as some elders of the party were said to have advised him to toe the path of honour by resigning before the lawmakers impeach him.

It was gathered that the impeachment panel constituted by the state’s acting Chief judge, Ambrose Mamadi, last week will end its sitting today.

Investigations in Yola also revealed that many of the state’s legislators have gone underground and incommunicado to forestall any form of influence from any quarters.

Attempts to speak with some of them proved as they refused to answer their telephone calls. Their friends and relatives also confirmed that they were not able to contact them on their phones.

Twenty-five members of the state House of Assembly last week tasked the acting Chief Judge to set up the panel to investigate the activities of the governor which they described as inimical to the progress of the state.

Reports said efforts by the former Vice President and prominent Adamawa son, Atiku Abubakar, to persuade the lawmakers to ditch their impeachment plot also proved abortive after he met with them in Abuja days ago.