Kogi House of Assembly members Thursday defied the order given by the House of Reps member as 10 members convene sitting….
Details later…
Tag: Kogi State House of Assembly
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No plan to impeach Gov. Bello – Kogi PDP lawmakers
The members of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Kogi State House of Assembly said they had no agenda to impeach the Governor of the state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
The Majority Leader of the House, Mr Matthew Kolawole, said this during interview with newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday.
Kolawole said the concern of the members was to resolve the leadership crisis rocking the state assembly.
“The state governor is just like new born baby without sin. For what reason will anybody want to kill the baby.
“To me, the governor has not done anything wrong to us and none of us here is talking about impeachment of the governor at all,” he said.
Kolawole said it was baseless to say Mr. James Faleke, the running mate to the late Prince Abubakar Audu in the Nov. 21 was sponsoring the crisis rocking the House.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), recalls that Audu, who contested the election on the platform of APC, died on Nov.22 before the result of the election was announced.
“If anybody is saying that Faleke is sponsoring us, he is misleading the public.
Faleke is not part of this struggle.
“The struggle we have today is that we want to stabilise Kogi State House of Assembly as an independent arm of government,” he said.
On outcome of members’ meeting with the National Chairman of PDP, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff, he said they agreed with the party’s directive that the status quo should remain.
“We have passed another vote of confidence on the leadership of the House under Speaker Momoh Jimoh-Lawal and all of us have signed.”
He added that Mr John Aba, one of the five members who had the intention to impeach Jimoh-Lawal was also present at the meeting.
He, however, said that Aba was yet to sign the resolution of the meeting adding that he stepped out after the meeting.
“So far so good, eleven of us here have signed. We are waiting for him to come back because the party has directed that we sign and he agreed.”
The majority leader said that maintaining status quo under the leadership of Jimoh-Lawal was temporary in order to resolve the crisis on ground.
He was optimistic that the House could not be rubber-stamped for allowing the Speaker and governor to come from the same zone of the state pending the time a new speaker would be elected.
According to Kolawole, even if Jimoh-Lawal resigns, the onus lies on the House to unanimously agree on the new speaker that will pilot the affairs of the House.
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Kogi ‘ousted’ speaker threatens to impeach new deputy governor
The ‘ousted’ Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Honourable Momoh Jimoh , Friday announced plan to serve an impeachment notice on the Deputy Governor of the state, Mr Simon Achuba.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Jimoh who was ‘impeached’ by five members of the assembly on Tuesday said Achuba has questions to answer over the crisis in the legislature.
He denounced his impeachment by the five legislators and insinuated that they were sponsored by vested interests.
Jimoh also announced the suspension of the five members who announced his impeachment saying their action violated the rules of the House as the five members failed to form a quorum before announcing his impeachment.
The five lawmakers in a 20-member House sat on Tuesday and purportedly removed the Speaker.
The lawmakers also chose Umar Imam as the new Speaker of the House.
Friday Sanni, who briefed reporters about the impeachment, said the Speaker was impeached for not carrying other members of the House along in the affairs of the House.
He also claimed that since the new Governor, Yahaya Bello and the Speaker are both from the same senatorial district; the Speaker should vacate the seat.
Meanwhile, 15 members of the House who were seen at Hon. Jimoh’s residence insisted Hon. Jimoh remains the Speaker and that their signatures were forged to perfect the impeachment.
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Kogi lawmakers seek Dogara’s intervention
Kogi lawmakers have appealed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara to intervene in the political crisis rocking the Kogi State House of Assembly.
The impeached Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Momoh Lawal and 14 members of the House made the appeal Wednesday in a petition to Dogara, where they called for an investigation into the impeachment of a Speaker by five lawmakers.
The lawmakers alleged that their signatures were forged to execute the impeachment plan.
Five lawmakers had announced the removal of the principal officers of the House while announcing Umar Imam as the New Speaker on 16th February 2016.
The petition reads: “In furtherance of their act of impunity, illegality and desperation, the purported Speaker was sworn in the office of the Deputy governor contrary to the extant provisions of the House rules and in flagrant abuse of the tenets of democracy and separation of powers as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“As we speak, on the instructions and directives of the state governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, all security details attached to the extant Speaker, Honourable Momoh Lawal have been withdrawn thereby exposing him and other members to imminent danger.
“The act of illegality and executive recklessness of the Governor of Kogi state, if allowed to stand will not only truncate our nascent democracy but will also bring the entire law making institution to ridicule and plunge the State into anarchy and as such we call in strong terms for your intervention, investigation and prompt action to ensure this act of illegality does not stand and to prevent this situation from degenerating into a full blown crisis”.