Though the newly inaugurated Kogi State 6th House of Assembly has adjourned to August 18th, the House may not be able to open for legislative business as the war between the Peoples Democratic Party and The All Progressive Congress, APC legislators lingers on.
The brouhaha which started over the nomination of Speaker and other principal officers subsequently turned into bickering between the two parties in the assembly where the PDP has 14 seats to the 11 controlled by the APC.
As it stands, the parties are just using the House as a decoy to fight for relevance and supremacy. The real essence of the debacle is geared towards the governorship election scheduled to hold later in the year.
The present war between the two parties’ legislators started at the inauguration of the 6th House of Assembly which ended in controversy resulting in a walk-out by the APC, members. The trouble even flowed outside the chambers as supporters of the two parties clashed over the development resulting in security operatives using tear-gas to dispel the supporters.
It is feared that the present situation could re-enact the scenario in the 5th Assembly where the battle for the impeachment of the former Speaker, Abdullahi Bello caused a lot of uproar in the State, leading to the closure of the Assembly for more than a year.
How trouble started
Immediately the Governor of the State, Capt. Idris Wada concluded the inauguration of the new members, the member representing Igalamela/Odolu constituency, Friday Sani (PDP) proposed Momoh Jimoh Lawal as his nominee for the position of Speaker.
Sani asked the clerk, Mr. Simon Momoh to swear Lawal as the speaker as he had collated signatures of members in his support as speaker. Sani was seconded by a new-comer, Prince Matthew Kolawole (PDP-Kabba/Bunu) and the clerk called for voice votes.
However, all efforts of the member representing Ankpa 1 (APC), Ibrahim Abdumumuni to propose another nominee was ignored by the clerk of the House which forced all the 11 APC members- elects to stage a walk-out.
The clerk, however, said that the action was irreversible and went ahead to conduct the rest of the elections.
Other elected principal officers included: Prince Matthew Kolawole, Majority Leader; Deputy Majority Leader, Sunday Shigaba (PDP-Bassa); Friday Sani, Chief Whip; Mohammed Bello (APC-Ajaokuta), Minority Leader.
The action led to commotion in and outside the gallery where angry youths and supporters of both parties resorted to violence and had to be tear-gassed by the police to restore peace.
Ultmatum
The House which was only filled with PDP members subsequently adjourned till August 18th. While the PDP led house thought they had prevailed, the APC was actually planning its own game plan. They did not accept the outcome lightly. The APC felt that the executive arm of government was behind the ‘shabby’ election. They thereafter issued a 24 hour ultimatum to the assembly members to redress the situation.
The APC members -elect later that day addressed journalists at the NUJ secretariat saying they staged the walk-out from the chamber as the list read by Sani was prepared from the Government House.
Abdulmumuni, (Ankpa, APC) who spoke on behalf of the APC said they do not recognise the pronounced list of officers as he stressed that it was too early for the executive to dictate the proceedings of the legislative arm of government.
Following the expiration of the 24 hour ultimatum, the APC members-elect pledged to elect their own Speaker along with other principal officers; a development the PDP supported Speaker, Lawal described as a premeditated and ill-conceived plan to destabilise the activities of the House.
Speaker speaks
Though the APC is yet to carry out their threats, but the Speaker of the Assembly, Lawal, described the APC legislators’ walk-out and threat to form a parallel principal officer’s as untenable.
“The minority group want to impose their will on the majority. The threat by the APC to form a parallel House leaders is undemocratic and at variance to any form of reasoning,” he said in a statement as he called on them to join hands with other members of the House.
Though the PDP has 14 of the 25 seats in the House, the party leaders were afraid of a competitive election as they feared that the 11 APC legislators would vote as a bloc with about two or three PDP renegades to twist the will of the PDP.
The APC members were more favourable to Godwin Osiyi (PDP, Ogori/Mangogo) and were said to have secretly endorsed him. Besides, at least four PDP members were also said to have endorsed him.
The endorsement was partly because Lawal who also served as speaker in the recently dissolved House was generally regarded as leading a legislature that was a rubberstamp of the executive.
The PDP ahead of the governorship election later this year was, however, becoming very sensitive to all issues, especially ethnic balancing.
A source in the party revealed that the speaker had been zoned to Kogi Central.
“The SSG position is already occupied by an Ogori/Mangogo man, Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede; where the same Osiyi hails from. Giving the Speakership position to Ogori again will be a spite on the Ebira people in the central axis of the State and a loss to the PDP in the axis.”
The APC by supporting Osiyi also wanted to truncate the PDP plan in order to receive sympathy from the zone and hence the covert plan to push Osiyi ahead of the PDP’s preferred Lawal.
