From Kemi Yesufu, Abuja
THE House of Representative has commended the seal-off of the Kogi State House of Assembly complex by the police, saying, its take over of the legislative functions of the Assembly will be enforced until the embattled Speaker, Momoh Lawal Jimoh is reinstated.
On Wednesday March 9, the House of Representatives took over the legislative functions of the Kogi Assembly. It also ordered the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase to immediately seal off the premises of the assembly.
This is even as it declared Jimoh’s supposed impeachment, null and void. The House decision followed the adoption of the report from its ten-man investigative panel led by Deputy Whip, Pally Iriase which looked into Jimoh’s alleged removal.
In an exclusive chat with Sunday Sun, chairman of the House Committee on Media, Abdulrazak Namdas said the Wednesday March 30 closure of the Kogi Assembly by the police was in order.
He disclosed that the House will only direct the exit of the police from the Kogi Assembly when Jimoh returns to office as Speaker .
“The House invoked Section 11 Sub-Section 4 to take over the Kogi State Assembly and this was because of the crisis in the Assembly. As at now, there is still no peace in the Assembly. And since the House will not condone impunity and lawlessness, we will continue to carry out the legislative functions of the Kogi Assembly until when sanity is restored” , Namdas said.
Recall that following the adoption of a motion entitled “Illegal Removal of Kogi State House of Assembly” moved on Tuesday February 23 and sponsored by Karimi Sunday under matters of urgent public importance, the House resolved to investigate the circumstances surrounding Jimoh’s impeachment.
The embattled Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly had also along with 14 of his colleagues on Wednesday February 17 petitioned the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara seeking his intervention, saying another lawmaker, Umar Imam and four others announced themselves as the new leaders of the Kogi State House of Assembly.
Presenting the report of the investigative committee, Iriase described the actions taken by the Imam led group as an affront to the legislature, adding that not only did the self declared new Speaker of the Kogi Assembly and his other colleagues fail to form a quorum, plenary did not hold on the day they claimed to have impeached Jimoh. The lawmaker who called for the House to invoke Section 11 Sub-section 4 to take over the Assembly, equally informed the House that while Imam and his group refused to meet with the committee, arguing that they had obtained what he described as a non existent court injunction. He said also that the governor of Kogi State, Yayaha Bello met with the delegation from the House and denied being behind the crisis.