Police bar Benue Assembly lawmakers

Benue State lawmakers have been barred from the House of Assembly premises by police following crisis involving two factions of the state legislative arms.

The development came after a faction of G-22 led by the new Speaker Titus Abua, suspended the former Speaker, Terkibir Ikyange, who is the leader of another faction, the G-8, for six months.

The G-22 lawmakers were said to have also directed him to handover all official property of the Assembly to the Clerk within 24 hours.

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It was learnt that. the police, following the development took over the Assembly complex.

Earlier, both factions of the House had scaled the high perimeter fence surrounding the Assembly Complex to gain entrance into the premises in an attempt to hold the day’s parliamentary session.

While the police was not able to prevent them from gaining entry into the complex, it however managed to stop them gaining entry into the main lobby of the complex to hold their meetings.

Recall that 21 out of 30 members of the Assembly had on July 24 during an emergency sitting impeached Ikyange.

The impeachment came after the Assembly had earlier adjournment plenary on July 10 and announced that it was going to resume sitting on August 15.

After his impeachment, the former Speaker had contended that the action of the House was illegal, saying that it did not follow “the right procedure” because the House was in adjournment.

According to him, only two principal officers could reconvene the House since it was on recess, namely the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, and these two officers he said did not reconven the Assembly.

The new Speaker and his faction, justifying their action had quoted the Standing Rules of the House, which stipulates that in the absence of the two presiding officers the House could elect a pro-tempo Speaker to preside.

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