ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. The House of Representatives on Wednesday assumed control of the troubled Kogi State Assembly and directed the Inspector General of Police, IGP Solomon Arase to seal off the Assembly premises.
The House also declared the impeachment of Honourable Momoh Jimoh Lawal as Speaker by the group of five led by Honourable Umar Imam as null and void.
The House resolution was sequel to the adoption of report of the 10 man House delegation to kogi Assembly on the alleged illegal removal of the Speaker of the State Assembly.
While considering the report, the House resolved that, “in view of the fact that the Kogi state House of Assembly cannot perform its legislative functions due to the intractable crises and the volatile security situation in the state, the National Assembly should invoke the powers conferred on it by section 11(4) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria to take over the legislative functions of the state House of Assembly pending the restoration of normalcy in the Assembly”.
The House during the consideration of the report deleted a recommendation which read “members of the Kogi state House of Assembly should endeavour to quickly and amicably resolve any misunderstanding within them, do the needful to restore normalcy and report readiness to quickly assume legislative functions to the National Assembly”.
The committee in its findings noted that “there is palpable tension and apprehension of possible security breach which could be highly volatile if not handled with care because of ethnic distrust nature of the state as confirmed by security reports. This is further exacerbated by the unsettled matters arising from the governorship election.
“The leader of the group of 15 Honourable Momoh Jimoh Lawal played an intriguing role as he deliberately misled the group into avoidable collision course with the governor.
“It is unacceptable for 5 members to have attempted to remove the Speaker in a House currently constituted of 20 members and the 5 members did not sit in the chambers of the House of Assembly to perform their legislative function.
“It is condemnable that the group of 5 led by Honourable Umar Imam could rely on a non existent injunction to attempt to scuttle the constitutional function of the House of Representatives when they were fully aware of the visit of the delegation.
“Equally condemnable is the clerk of the state House of Assembly, a senior civil servant who took side in the face of crises where he should be a neutral umpire and did not appear before the delegation. This is unbecoming of a civil servant of his cadre”, the committee’s finding stated.
Credit: Tribune (Nigeria)
