Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, Alhaji Razaq Atunwa, has declared the purported sack of his Kogi counterpart, Abdullahi Bello, as illegal, unconstitutional, null and void.
He said the lawmakers did not meet the required two-thirds majority before removing Bello.
He also decried the involvement of the state government in the impeachment saga, saying with such an action, he would never support the call for state police.
Atunwa declared that the the rate at which Speakers of states’ legislative assemblies are being removed in the current political dispensation was a threat to the deepening of democratic ethos and values among the political class.
Atunwa, who made the observation in Ilorin, Kwara State while responding to the sack of the Kogi Speaker, said the development is not only troubling but portend serious danger to the nascent democracy.
He also argued that in the Kogi case, the lawmakers failed to meet the constitutional requirement for their action and warned that such a situation must not be allowed to stay.
His words: “My thoughts on the issue are that Speakers in Nigeria seem now to be easy targets and endangered species where they are removed from office any how. In the last 12 months or so, we have had about five speakers that were removed; from Kano to Niger and Kogi state, it is troubling and it is bad for our politics. It is for Nigeria because if there is no stable leadership at the legislative assembly, the state becomes precarious. If we refuse to challenge the latest action, then it is a bad omen for us all.
“I understand that the House of Representatives has set up a committee to look into the matter and I won’t want to dwell on particular facts but what we know is that 17 members sought to replace the Speaker but we have now read in the papers an advertorial signed by 13 of them, out of 25 members. The law is that only two thirds of the majority can carry out such an act and if you have 13 members out of 25, it means they have not met the requirement of the law for their action.
“I am raising this issue because it is a matter of concern to me, both as a legislator and a Nigerian. If we fail to stem the tide, it will become our undoing as a democracy because everywhere in the world, the legislature is a stabilising factor for every democracy. Governments come and go, commissioners and ministers come and go but not so the legislature. And that is why the law makes it very cumbersome for you to say you want to remove a legislator. I will, therefore, plead with our political stakeholders across the country not to toy with the parliament”.
Atunwa also expressed satisfaction over the move to enhance the financial autonomy of state legislatures through the ongoing constitutional review process, saying it will significantly assist the lawmakers in the performance of their functions.
He said the purported sack of the Kogi Speaker also buttressed the argument of those who oppose state police, saying it would be politically suicidal for Nigeria as things are presently constituted to allow governors wield such enormous power of controlling an arm of the security system.
