Just In: Adamawa Assembly denies stripping Lamido as chairman state council of chiefs
Adamawa State house of assembly (ADHA) has put a strong rebuttal to media reports indicating that it has removed Lamido of Adamawa, HRH Alhaji Muhammadu Barkindo Aliyu Mustapha as the chairman, state council of chiefs.
The media space was recently awash with news indicating that the new districts and emirates bill passed by the assembly has stripped Lamido as the chairman of Adamawa State council of chiefs and has made the office rotational amongst the Emirates and chiefdoms in the state which sparked off considerable tension in the state.
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Making the clarifications at a press conference in Yola on Friday, the chairman house standing committee on information and member representing Mayo Belwa State constituency, Hon. Musa Mahmud Kallamu urged the general public to disregard the trending news.
“This press conference was prompted due to the releases that are going on air about the bill passed by this honourable house. This honourable house cannot keep quiet without sensitizing the public about what is going on,” he said.
He noted that contrary to what is being speculated, Lamido Adamawa remains the chairman of the council of chiefs emphasizing that all other emirs and chiefs are still answerable to him.
“The major issue going on is that this honourable house has stripped off chairmanship of traditional institution of Adamawa State from Lamido of Adamawa to rotational chairmanship which this honourable house feel is not appropriate and is not what the honorable house has passed that is why we are on air to clarify this issue.
“The principal bill clearly spelt in section 17 of the bill that “there shall be Adamawa State council of chiefs with an area of jurisdiction and authority.”
“Section 18 of the bill says, the council shall consist of Chiefs in the state, second class chiefs, the permanent secretary of ministry of chieftaincy affairs and ALGON chairman.
“Section 18 (2) of the bill says the Lamido of Adamawa shall be the chairman of the state council of chiefs in Adamawa State. So there is nothing like the Lamido is being stripped off as the chairman of council of chiefs in the bill,” he said.
He noted that the purveyors of the fake news latched on a novel provision in the bill which created three zonal traditional councils in northern, southern and central districts adding that the rotational chairmanship will be amongst the three new zonal councils
“The ambiguity generating the heat around the media is about the creation of zonal traditional council and composition. That is the establishment of zonal traditional council and composition that is part of the bill.
“It is talking about creating zonal traditional council in the state which the is the new thing that is being added in the bill. Section 29 (1) established the creation of three traditional zonal councils.
“They are; the central zone traditional council, northern zonal traditional council and southern zonal traditional council. This is where the rotational chairmanship is being captured. It is not about Adamawa State entirely, it is talking about zonal.
“So the zonal traditional councils will be having a rotational chairmanship but all the chairmanship of all the zones will be reporting to the state chairman who is the Lamido of Adamawa. This is what is clearly written in the bill and the assembly is not happy about the current misinformation going on,” he added.
