15 out of the 20 members of the Kogi State House of Assembly on Friday advised the leadership of the National Assembly to rescind its decision to take over the affairs of the state parliament as a result of the crisis allegedly orchestrated by five of their colleagues.
Aggrieved five out of the 20 lawmakers had reportedly impeached the Speaker, Momoh-Jimoh Lawal on Tuesday, February 16 and named one of them, Mr. Umar Iman, as his successor.
The development degenerated into a serious crisis which forced the Speaker, House of Representative, Yakubu Dogara requesting the House to investigate the current crisis and the federal parliament decided to take over the affairs of the institution.
But Lawal and 14 lawmakers including the principal officers of the State House of Assembly, in a letter to Dogara through their counsel, Messrs Ademuyiwa Adeniyi, advised the federal lawmakers to steer clear of their affairs because the matter was already in court.
The legislators informed the federal parliament that its order directing the sealing-off of the Kogi House of Assembly premises was illegal as it does not have power to do so.
They stated “In the light of the above reasons and the simple fact that the House order directing the sealing-off, of the Kogi State House of Assembly is no less an executive order over which the House of Representatives lack the vires to make.
“The making of such order is situated in the Executive by the Constitution which recognises the separation of power of the three arms of government as the hallmark of democracy.
“We therefore advise that the directive that the Kogi State House of Assembly be sealed-off, be rescinded without delay.”
The lawmakers said there were several suits pending in various courts and that the federal parliament should respect its own convention to abstain from any matter that is already a subject of litigation.
The letter further reads, ” We learnt reliably from the publications repeatedly broadcast and published on both print and electronic media that an ad-hoc committee set up and designated by the House of Representatives ordered and directed the Inspector General of Police and some other law enforcement agencies to seal off the premises and precincts of the Kogi State House of Assembly and thereby prevent the said House from carrying out its legislative business guaranteed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
