The Kogi State House of Assembly has been embroiled in a crisis. Two factions are laying claim to its leadership, as the National Assembly hammer dangles on the state legislative chambers. JAMES AZANIA reports.
A faction of the Kogi State House of Assembly, otherwise known as the G-5, has, for the second time, defied the resolution of the House of Representatives that the House should be sealed off. Ten members of the House under the leadership of Hon. Umar Imam have resumed sitting.
When the Senate endorsed the House of Representatives’ order, seven members of the faction sat in the Kogi House to demonstrate their defiance. The sitting was, however, adjourned by Imam, following their inability to form a quorum. The other faction, the G-15 members loyal to Momoh Jimoh-Lawal, who had taken its case to the National Assembly, stayed away from the chambers.
The House of Representatives had ordered the closure of the Kogi Assembly, following the protracted leadership battle. Two lawmakers have been parading themselves as Speakers. The crisis has continued to defy solution. The Senate followed, by endorsing the resolution and calling on the Inspector General of Police (IG) to enforce the closure.
The battle for the slot has defied solution. The issue arose when former Governor Idris Wada was winding up last year. It has been a major challenge for his successor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello. Little did the stakeholders guess that the next governor would emerge from the same senatorial zone as Jimoh-Lawal, who held sway during the build-up to the November 21, last year election.
The arithmetic changed when the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Prince Abubakar Audu, suddenly died after winning the election. Bello, who inherited Audu’s victory, and Jimoh-Lawal, are from the same district.
The permutations began. After the poll, the APC, could not muster a majority in the House. Thus, the governor could not exert much influence during the choice of the principal officers of the House. Since then, three lawmakers have been parading themselves as Speakers.
The crisis escalated last week. The Kogi House was on a collision course with the National Assembly when seven members loyal to the factional Speaker, Umar Imam, sat on Tuesday, against the directive of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. During that show of bravado, he adjourned the sitting till Thursday. He said: “We have waited for our members who have been travelling around Abuja to come. Kogi State was greater than any individual and should not be dragged into unnecessary political quagmire.”
The disputed Speaker said he was relying on the House Rules in his decisions. He said: “ Since December, last year, the House has been transacting business, even at the committee level, and should be left alone to do the needful for the advancement of the state.”
There was uproar in the House when Jimoh-Lawal was purportedly removed by his former supporters.
Hon. Friday Sani, who emerged as the new Majority Leader, announced that Imam from Lokoja 1 Constituency, was elected in replacement by ’15 members’ of the House. But, his claim was disputed because only four lawmakers attended the session where the decision was made. During the controversial sitting, Hon. John Abba was elected as the Chief Whip while the position of the Deputy Speaker was left vacant.
Sani has maintained that the laid down procedure was followed in electing the principal officers. He alleged that the impeached Speaker has not demonstrated the capacity to lead the House. He said the House has followed the due process to remove the him, adding that 15 members signed the impeachment notice, although only seven was required to form a quorum to remove the principal officers.
He added: “With the Court of Appeal ruling, which sacked five of our members, reducing it to 20, only seven members are required to form a quorum and we have more than that.”
However, Jimoh-Lawal disagreed, saying that he is still in charge. He said the impeachment null and void.
The embattled Speaker said that 15 of the 20 members of the Hsouse passed a vote of confidence on him.
He said the House can only reconvene from recess, if he issues a notice. He maintained that no one can issue the proclamation apart from him.
When the debacle was brought to the notice of the House of Representatives by the G-15, a10-member fact finding committee on the Kogi House crisis was dispatched to the state. But, the crisis has persisted as solution to it was elusive.
During the first visit of the committee to Kogi, its Chairman, Hon. Pally Iriase, who is the Deputy Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, disclosed in Lokoja, after a meeting with Governor Bello, that their mission was to look into the crisis and resolve it. He urged the warring factions parties to allow the constitution to prevail.
The G-5, which boycotted the meeting oraganised by the Iriase team, was adamant. It claimed that it has secured a restraining order from the court against the committee from interfering in the crisis. The committee said it was not aware of the court order.
Receiving the committee members, Governor Bello described the crisis as a minor misunderstanding. He expressed optimism that it will soon be a thing of the past. He said the lawmakers were quarreling over the House leadership, which was a mere nomenclature, stressing that all members were equal.
Members of the G-15 have pointed accusing fingers at the governor for allegedly fuelling the crisis and attempting to impose a leadership on the legislative arm, of government in the state. But, Bello explained that the leadership crisis preceded his inauguration as the governor on January 27, adding that it would be wrong for anybody to say that he was behind it. Thanking the House of Representatives for its timely intervention, he promised to invite the two factions for the amicable resolution of the misunderstanding.
The Imam faction, however, shunned the House of Representatives fact-finding committee on the crisis. While the committee held meetings with the various stakeholders, including the Department of State Security Service (DSS), the Imam group was conspicuously absent at the House of Assembly venue of the parley.
On March 10, in apparent defiance of the House of Representatives’ order, the Imam group held a valedictory session in honour of the late Minister of State for Labour and Employment, James Ocholi (SAN), inside the chambers. It also directed the legal department to file contempt proceedings against the House of Representatives. The faction also set-up a committee to investigate those who are behind the continuous “blackmailing of Kogi State House of Assembly,” and urged members to remain “focused in the deliberations for the cause of the people and the state”.
Imam said: “This Assembly is in session, transacting its legislative business at both plenary sitting and at committee meeting”.
Prior to the Imam Group’s offensive, Jimoh-Lawal’s position had been threatened by another faction, led by Hon. Godwin Osuyi, who was purportedly elected Speaker, shortly before Bello’s inauguration. The battle degenerated into mayhem as the lawmakers’ supporters unleashed terror on themselves.
While the noise from the Osuyi faction has faded, the Jimoh-Lawal and Imam camps are not in a hurry to sheath their swords for peace to reign.
