Lawmakers adjourn sitting indefinitely as police seal up House of Assembly
The Nigeria Police Force has sealed up the Ondo State House of Assembly over its persistent leadership crisis, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
The development was confirmed by the acting speaker Malachi Coker in Akure, the state capital, on Monday, February 6.
Ondo lawmakers impeached former speaker Jumoke Akindele over alleged N15million fraud.
According to him, the police sealed the Assembly complex over the House’s leadership crisis after the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris ordered its indefinite closure. The Assembly has now adjourned sitting indefinitely following the police action, he added.
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He told NAN: “For now, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, has directed that the Assembly should be locked.
“On Friday, Feb, 3, the police brought a warrant that the Assembly should be locked indefinitely and that was after the House had adjourned its sitting at a plenary held on Thursday, Feb. 2.
“We hope the police will not be bias in their actions by allowing the impeached Speaker’s faction to have access into the Assembly.”
Recall that the Ondo Assembly, had on Friday, January 27, impeached Speaker Jumoke Akindele and other principal officers over alleged N15m fraud after same amount of money was found on the Assembly’s Pay Master Makanjuola Adesina, who told the lawmakers that it was withdrawn on the instruction of the Speaker for a project the lawmakers did not know about.
Coker said the impeachment of the Speaker and other principal officers was in order because 20 out of the 26 members of the Assembly signed the impeachment notice.
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He said: “For clarification, it takes 18 members to sign the impeachment notice, while 10 members can sit in the Assembly to pronounce it and this time around 20 members signed the impeachment notice.
“About seven members backed out after they had signed the impeachment notice following pressure from the power that be.
“We all plan the impeachment together, but as human beings, some claimed they were not in the Assembly when the impeachment was to be carried out.”