The Speaker of the Assembly, Goni Ali Modu, however, told a reporter with the Hausa service of Radio France International that the u-turn made by the lawmakers was not as a result of bribe from the executive, as there was neither an offer nor collection of any money whatsoever over the tussle.

The lawmakers had in their sitting last Tuesday, while the governor was out of town, unanimously voted against a bill for the creation of new emirates in the state as requested by the governor. The initial amendment which was struck out on Tuesday had canvassed for the amendment of Section 68 of the law for the conferment of “power to create additional emirates” on the governor such that “he may subject to ratification by a simple majority of members of the House of Assembly by order create additional Emirates out of existing ones” in the state.

Sheriff on Wednesday summoned the lawmakers for a closed-door meeting which lasted for hours at the council chambers of the Government House, after which information filtered out that the lawmakers had allegedly “given in to the governor’s request”. On the evening of that day, the Assembly made a television announcement asking all members to resume for sitting the following day (Thursday).

During plenary on Thursday, the Majority Leader in the House, Hon. Idrisa Jida, representing Ngala State constituency mentioned  a fresh bill seeking the creation of new emirates and the House acknowledged receipt, but deferred deliberations till yesterday, Friday.

In their sitting yesterday, 17 of the 18 members in attendance including the Speaker unanimously reversed their Tuesday position and supported the creation of new emirates as proposed by the executive.

The Assembly committed the bill to the committee of the whole House which also adopted the amendments even though the House substituted the word “ratification” for “confirmation” on a clause that reads: “‘The Governor may create additional emirate out of the existing emirates subject to the Confirmation of this Honourable House” and not ‘ratification’.

The bill was passed through third reading and the Speaker then instructed the Clerk of the House to prepare six clean copies of the Bill for ‘Executive Assent’.

The bill has attracted mixed reactions since its first introduction with government officials, royal princes and residents having divided interests over it.