Taraba crisis: No! Suntai is not running a government by proxy – Governor’s camp tells Tukur

Aides loyal to the ailing governor of Taraba State, Danbaba Suntai have warned the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bamanga Tukur to stay on the side of the constitution in addressing the political crisis facing the state.
Taraba has been thrown into a state of confusion following doubts over the fitness of the governor who survived a plane crash months ago. The governor had returned to the country from the United States of America after undergoing specialist attention to treat his injuries.
Trouble brewed when the state Deputy Governor, Garba Umar and Speaker Hassan Tsokwa showed reluctance to cede power to the governor casting doubts on his fitness to effectively administer the state.
They believe the governor has not yet fully recovered to perform his constitutional duties and should return abroad for rehabilitation.
The governor has already dissolved his cabinet and appointed a new Chief of Staff and Secretary to the State Government, a move the deputy governor said was made by a cabal bent on hijacking power.
Read the  Nation Newspapers report below:

However, in a statement on behalf of Suntai camp yesterday, his associate and the immediate past commissioner for information, Mr. Emmanuel Bello, said to Tukur:
“As he moves to wade into the Taraba crisis, he must make the nation’s constitution his guide.
“The country is guided by our constitution, and we cannot afford to be lawless.
“The people perpetrating illegality are those saying they have no regards for the constitution.
“The speaker of the Taraba State House of Assembly, Haruna Tsokwa, has said he is not interested in what the constitution provides. In his rejection of Suntai’s letter, he keeps saying as far as he is concerned, he is entrenching a strange thing in our national life.
“I believe he hasn’t read the constitution. If he has, he doesn’t understand its provision.”
And to factional chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the Suntai camp said: “If Tukur takes side in the ongoing imbroglio, we shall vehemently resist him.
“We also deny in the harshest terms Tukur’s assertions that Suntai is running a government by proxy” and accused the Deputy Governor, Alhaji Garba Umar, of trying to run a parallel government by countering and questioning Suntai’s dissolution of the state cabinet.
Meanwhile, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Muslim Council in Taraba yesterday called for peace in the state in the wake of the political impasse.
The religious leaders held a meeting in Jalingo and resolved that they would not allow the political crisis affect the cordial relationship between adherents of the two religions.
They advised politicians not to exploit the situation to disunite Christians and Muslims resident in the state.
They said they are also praying for the crisis to be over soon.
Present at the meeting were: Chairman of the Muslim Council of Taraba State, Alhaji Inuwa Mafindi and CAN Vice Chairman, Rev. Ben Ubeh.
Mafindi and Ubeh also appreciated the love and patience exhibited by Christians and Muslims for refusing to allow the political skirmishes snowball into a violent religious crisis.