Reps summon AGF, IGP over Kogi Assembly
As Assembly suspends 10 members over lingering crisis
The House of Representatives on Tuesday summoned the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Abubakar Malami, to appear before its Committee on Judiciary over his alleged role in the Kogi House of Assembly crisis. The House also summoned the Inspector General of Police to appear before on the same matter.
This is even as the Hon. Umar Imam-led Kogi Assembly on Tuesday suspended 10 members of the assembly for their alleged involvement in the leadership crisis rocking the assembly since November 2015. The summoning of the AGF followed a point of order moved by Rep. Nicholas Ossai (Delta-PDP), who cited the Attorney General’s instruction to the InspectorGeneral of Police to reopen the assembly for proceedings. Ossai described the move as unwarranted and unlawful. In his contribution, the Majority Leader of the House, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, described the actions of the Attorney General as sad.
He said that the resolution of the house to seal Kogi assembly was based on Section 11 of the house’s rules. Rep. Pally Iriase, who led the chamber’s delegation to Kogi State, said that the matter was not in court when the house passed a resolution to take over legislative functions of Kogi Sstate assembly as provided by the Constitution. The Speaker of the House, Yakubu Dogara, said that sensitive matters like that should be treated with seriousness.
On his part, Rep. Muhammadu Bago (Niger-APC) called for the Attorney General’s resignation, saying that he lacked the power to instruct the reopening of the assembly. The legislators, however, resolved to summon the Inspector-General of Police and Malami to appear before their relevant committees. They also constituted a 22-member Ad hoc Committee headed by the Majority Leader to investigate the matter and report back in two weeks for further legislative attention. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the house resumed plenary on Tuesday after two weeks recess for the Easter celebration. Meanwhile, the Kogi House of Assembly has suspended 10 members of the house for their alleged involvement in the leadership crisis rocking the assembly since November 2015.
The suspension order issued on the floor of the house at plenary on Tuesday, followed the adoption of a report of the ad hoc committee commissioned on March 10. The ad hoc committee was asked to investigate the sponsorship of the crisis and involvement of the National Assembly and its failure to ensure due process even at the instance of a court injunction. Presenting the report, Mr. John Abah (PDP-Ibaji), Chairman of the ad hoc committee, said the committee found that the House of Representatives was misguided by members who had an interest in the crisis.
Abah said that the situation in the state had not resulted to a breakdown of law and order for the National Assembly to exercise its powers in invoking section 11(4) leaving out the provision of 11(5) of the constitution. He said the 10 members had persistently fuelled the crisis and made it extremely difficult for the house to resolve the leadership impasse peacefully in order to carry out its lawful and constitutional responsibilities. The committee, according to the chairman, recommended that all legal processes instituted in various courts be exhaustively determined to ensure due process, rule of law and justice to all parties. Abah said it recommended that further deliberation on the action of the National Assembly would be tantamount to prejudice and urged the house to restrain itself from engaging the National Assembly on the matter.
The committee recommended that the 10 members indicted by the committee be suspended from sitting. They are the embattled Speaker, Momo-Jimoh Lawal (PDP-Okene II), Matthew Kolawole (PDPKabba-Bunu), Aliyu Akuh (PDP-Omala), Victor Omofaiye (PDP-Ijumu) and Sunday Shigaba (PDPBassa). Others are Alfa Momoh-Rabiu (APC-Ankpa II), Enenche Linus (APCOlamaboro), Obaro Pedro (APC-Mopa-Muro), Ndako Idris (APC-Lokoja II) and Zakari Osewu (APC-KogiKK). Seconding the motion for the adoption of the report, the Majority Leader, Friday Sanni (PDP-Igalamela-Odolu) urged the house to adopt the three recommendations of the committee. The Speaker, Umar Imam, ruled on the adoption of the recommendations of the committee following overwhelming voice votes in favour of the report
