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There were gunshots on Monday at the Bayelsa State House of Assembly in the battle between supporters of Tonye Isenah and Monday Obolo who both claimed to be the Speaker of the Assembly.

It could not be ascertained last night who started the use of the weapon among the rival politicians in the Assembly.

But the mace, the Assembly’s symbol of authority, was reportedly snatched away by unknown persons.

The battle followed the alleged refusal of Speaker Tonye Isenah to resign from his position.

It was learnt that Isenah had been asked to step aside to enable the governorship candidate of the PDP in the November 16 election, Douye Diri, win the poll.

The arrangement, it was learnt, was due to the fact that Isenah and Diri are from the same local government.

Read Also: Controversy as Bayelsa gets two Speakers

But Isenah remained on the seat during yesterday’s plenary, after allegedly hinting that he would resign for a lawmaker from another local government area.

Isenah’s colleagues were said to be in shock by his action.

The Speaker adjourned indefinitely and asked fellow lawmakers to proceed on a recess.

Shortly after the adjournment, the gun battle started, leading to the violent removal of the mace from the Assembly.

While some sources said the Speaker left with the mace, others said suspected thugs stole it.

Isenah was said to have left the Assembly complex with four All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers and a PDP lawmaker, Bonny-Ayah, representing Southern Ijaw Constituency I.

The other lawmakers, led by Deputy Speaker Abraham Ngobere (Brass Constituency III), reconvened the Assembly and ordered reporters out.

It was learnt that another mace was brought into the Assembly to move for Isenah’s impeachment.

Bernard Kenebai (Sagbama II) moved the motion and was supported by unanimous voice votes. Oboku Oforji (Yenagoa Constituency 1) moved for the nomination of Monday Obolo as Speaker and he was seconded by Naomi Igoli of Ogbia Constituency III.

But Isenah dismissed the lawmakers’ actions, describing it as illegal.

He insisted that he remained the authentic Speaker.

He said: “I went to the House this morning and presided over plenary. Since the beginning of the sixth Assembly, all other Houses of Assemblies have gone on recess, even the National Assembly, but we have not gone. We have been working since and we are tired. So, today (yesterday), I adjourned the House indefinitely.

“If the House has been adjourned indefinitely, nothing can be done that would hold ground again. I presided over the House as the authentic Speaker and adjourned indefinitely…”

But Obolo, who was elected Speaker in the controversial circumstances, denied the alleged disappearance of the mace.

He said: “The House of Assembly is a united family. It is an honour to have been elected to lead the Sixth Assembly. We are meant to debate and 18 members elected me. Bayelsans should expect the dividends of democracy.”

Governor Seriake Dickson, the state chapter of the PDP and the party’s youths have congratulated Obolo.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Fidelis Soriwei, the governor described Obolo as a promising, young and vibrant political leader with the capacity to carry out the sensitive responsibility of presiding over legislative arm of government.

The youths praised the lawmakers for installing the new Speaker.

The First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, and the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, will on Thursday unveil a 149-bed Maternal and Child Centre (MCC) located inside the Alimosho General Hospital, state Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has said.

Abayomi, who disclosed this yesterday during an inspection tour of the facility, explained that the specialist centre was built and donated by the Federal Government through the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to the Lagos State Government.

According to him, the three floor facility has two operating theatres, recovery rooms, sterilisation room, delivery room, consultation rooms, private and general wards, scanning room, side laboratory rooms, reception area, lounge, nurses’ room and station, doctor call rooms, scrub room and a board room.

Read Also: ‘Sanwo-Olu poised to develop Lagos’

The commissioner said: “Inside the centre are ultra-modern equipment that will aid the prompt delivery of maternal and child care services; this include: patient monitors with EC02, Suction machine double jar, ultra-scan machines, oxygen generating machine, vacuum extractor delivery set, anaesthetic machine and diathermy machine.

“Others are emergency cart with defibrillator, baby incubators, photo therapy lamps, paediatric ventilators, multi-parameter monitors for mothers and babies, crash cart, theatre monitor, defibrillators and fetal Doppler.”

Abayomi, who lauded the gesture of the Federal Government for donating the facility, said that the MCC would have an impact on the efforts of the Lagos State Government geared towards promoting the health of the mothers and children, reducing maternal and child mortality and improving the state’s health indices.

He said: “We are very grateful to the Federal Government to have produced this extra capacity facility for us in our endeavour to look after mothers and children. We already have one mother and child centre at Alimosho, but we have exceeded the capacity,

“And so, this donation from the Federal government for us to spill over is a great gift to Lagos State and the people of Alimosho. We will maximise its use and it will certainly have an impact in our attempt to improve the welfare and reduce mortality of mothers and children.”

Speaking in the same vein, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr. Titilayo Goncalves, said the state government has engaged the services of clinical facility managers through the office of the Lagos State Infrastructure Asset Management Agency to maintain the facility.

National Vice Chairman, (Southwest) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Eddy Olafeso, on Monday declared his intention to contest for the governorship of Ondo State in the forthcoming election in the state.

Olafeso, who is a former commissioner for information in Ondo, made the declaration at the party’s State Secretariat, Alagbaka, Akure.

He said he made the declaration to run for the state’s governorship to alert and put the leadership and members of the party on notice that he would be taking a shot at the number political office on the platform of the PDP.

The PDP national vice chairman (South West) said he decided to inform the party ahead of its primaries.

Olafeso, however, accused the current administration in the state of dismantling all the legacy projects in the state, particularly free education.

Read Also: Ondo 2020: Who gets PDP ticket?

He also alleged that the present administration had made education unaffordable for the ordinary citizens in the state.

Besides, the PDP chieftain said that the debt profile of the state had reached N150 Billion.

According to him, “You pay fees from primary to secondary and university. The tertiary institutions are far beyond the ordinary man. I am a product of the Obafemi Awolowo era and I wouldn’t have been educated if there were no social welfare programmes for the ordinary man in the street.

“They have abdicated their responsibility. They have stepped on the head of history. There’s no way we will allow them to continue. They have destroyed everything we ever stood for.

“When Agagu left office, we had over N38billion in our kitty as savings. When Dr. Mimiko left office, he left a very vibrant maternal care health programme for the state.

The state Chairman of the PDP, Clement Faboyede, said the party had not zoned the governorship ticket of the party to any zone.

He disclosed that for now, there were17 members of the party that had shown interest in its gubernatorial ticket.

Faboyede boasted that PDP would produce the next governor of the state in the 2020 gubernatorial election.

The former commissioner for community development and cooperative services said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) government had disappointed the citizenry.

The Osun State House of Assembly on Monday screened the first batch of nine out of 35 commissioners and special adviser nominees to work with Governor Gboyega Oyetola.

Those screened by the state Assembly included Oladoyin Olayinka Folorunso, Ibitoye Felix Adeniran, Adebisi Obawale Simeon, Oladepo Solagbade Atanda, Ajisefini Abiodun, Egbemode Funke Adenike, Ogunfolaju Christiana Olusola, Agunbiade Nathaniel and Omowaye Oluremi.

They were grilled by the lawmakers after they had summarised their Curriculum Vitae before the Assembly.

Due to the public holiday declared by the Federal Government for Tuesday (today), the screening exercise will continue on Wednesday with Adewole Adedayo, Akande Oluwafemi, Adeleke Adebayo, Olamiju Olasiji, Yinusa Olalekan, Isamotu Rafiu,  Olasunkanmi Tadese Raheem, Adeosun Rasaq and Oladimeji Olanubi Segun on the list.

Read Also: Jigawa gov swears in 11 commissioners, others

Those scheduled for screening on Thursday are Bakare Akande, Jamiu Olawumi Olaniyan Hussein, Badmus Rahmon Lekan, Bola Oyebamiji, Olumide Babatunde Olawale, Lawal Yemi Azeez, Akeju Taiwo and Giwa Lateefat.

On Friday, which will be the last day for the, nominees to be screened are Kareem Akande, Oyegbile Rufus, Olaboopo Olubukola, Kolajo Aderemi, Babalola Idiat  Lawal Tajudeen, Muminu Adekunle and Olaonipekun Henry.

Before the commencement of the screening exercise, the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Timothy Owoeye, assured indigenes and residents of the state that the Assembly would do a thorough and strict job on the screening of the commissioner/special adviser nominees.

The Speaker stated that the Assembly had resolved that the screening exercise was not going to be a “tea party,” adding that members were in high spirit and ready to give their all for the betterment of the State of Osun.

During the plenary, Owoeye said that the House was not unaware that the nominees would have gone through different levels of security checks, saying aside from such checks, the House would not shy away from its constitutional responsibility.

He also stated that the state is blessed with Governor Oyetola, who was committed to the principle of separation of powers, as the governor had at different for a, stated that he would stopped at nothing to make Osun a state of positive reference amongst all the states in Nigeria.

According to him: “It is on record that Governor Oyetola has sent a list of 35 persons to be screened as commissioners/special advisers. My colleagues and I at the Assembly have resolved not to betray the confidence reposed in us by the public.

“We are not unmindful of other screenings that might have taken place before now, but the State House of Assembly is constitutionally saddled with the final screening.

“We assure our people of Osun that we will do our job without favour, nothing but the interest of our state.”

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Monday met behind closed doors, Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom and Ebonyi State Deputy Governor Kelechi Igwe over land crisis between the two states.

The meeting was attended by the acting Director-General of the National Boundary Commission, Adaji Adamu.

Addressing State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Ortom said: “We came at the instance of the vice-president to discuss the lingering problem between Benue and Ebonyi states, in particular between Agila in Benue and Ngbo in Ebonyi.

“We are also here with the acting DG, National Boundary Commission and we have taken far reaching decisions to ensure we demarcate the boundary between these two states so that we can hold our people responsible.

“As it is now, it’s difficult to identify the criminals who are creating tension and creating more of these problems.

Read Also: Gunmen kill 10 in Ebonyi community

“So I believe that very soon, the boundary commission will come out with a programme to enable Benue and Ebonyi team up and provide the necessary logistics and security to ensure that the boundary is demarcated.

“Well, it’s a border crisis because we are talking about two states. We should know the limits of each state. It’s a border problem more like a communal problem.”

On TIV/Jukun crisis, he said: “Well, I know that there is a spillover. This is largely TIV and Jukum in Taraba State.  I have Jukun in Benue State. We are not fighting. There were issues in the past and I decided to set up a judicial commission of enquiry, which is still sitting to look at the remote and immediate causes of this strife so that we can find a solution to it.

“This other one is more of a problem in Taraba, but because there are TIV people in Benue and we are talking about TIV people, so each time people are displaced, some run back to Benue, so that’s the spirit of it.

“But I think Taraba State governor is doing well. Recently they met and agreed that there should be ceasefire. Although I saw in the press that there were some issues with that peace agreement, you know each time there are efforts to try to solve problems, criminals will come in and I think that the steps the governor took by inviting two sides, both the TIV and the Jukum to sit together and find means of how they can resolve this matter, is the best approach.

“I believe that once that problem is sorted out in Taraba State, we will not have anything in Benue State.”