The paramount ruler of the Adamawa Emirate, the Lamido of Adamawa, Alhaji Muhammadu Mustapha retains his position as the permanent chairman of the state Council of Chiefs.
This clarification was made on Friday by the State House of Assembly, following reports that it has stripped the Lamido of the long-held position.
The Assembly was reported to have passed a bill providing for a rotation of the chairmanship position away from the Lamido to other emirs and chiefs on yearly basis.
Dismissing the claims, the Chairman of the Assembly Standing Committee on Information, Musa Mahmud, told journalists at the state Assembly Complex in Yola on Friday that the report was a misrepresentation of the truth.
“The major issue now is allegation that this honourable House has passed a bill stripping the Lamido Adamawa his chairmanship of the state traditional institution and making the chairmanship rotational. It’s not what the House has passed,” Mahmoud stressed.
He explained that Section 18(II) of the bill makes it clear that the Lamido of Adamawa shall be the Chairman of the State Council of Chiefs, but that
the heat going in in the media was perceivably around creation of zonal traditional councils by the bill in view.
“Section 29(1) talks about establishment of three zonal traditional councils: Central Zone Traditional Council, Northern Zone Traditional Council and Southern Zone Traditional Council. There is where the rotational chairmanship is captured.
“The zonal traditional councils will be having rotational chairmanship but all the zonal chairmen will be reporting to the state chairman who is the Lamido of Adamawa,” Mahmud explained.