The crisis of confidence rocking the Kogi State House of Assembly took a new dimension on Thursday, as the faction loyal to the impeached Speaker, Honourable Momoh Lawal, relocated to Abuja, where they held a sitting of the assembly.

The lawmakers, who held their first sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, issued a summon to the state governor,  Alhaji Yahaya Bello,  to appear before the assembly’s faction.

The  faction also served impeachment notice on the state deputy governor, while also suspending the five members who impeached the speaker last week.

The governor is to explain reasons  permanent secretaries, directors, accountants, cashiers of parastatals, agencies, ministries and  councils areas have to be sent on compulsory leave.

Also, the five members, who sat and impeached the former Speaker, Hon Momoh Lawal,  were suspended for acting contrary to the rules of the assembly and by “claiming to have sat without a quorum and forgery of signatures of 10 members in the purported impeachment.”

The suspended are : Honourables Friday  Sani; Umar Imam; John Abah; Lawi A.T. Ahmed and Bello Abdullahi.

The Kogi State House of Assembly is made up of 25 members, five of them are taking part in the rerun election which takes place this Saturday. The rerun will take place in Ofu, Dekina 1&2, Idah and Ofu Constituencies.  The rerun is a fallout of the outcome of the election petition tribunal set up to hear complaints emanating from the last year election.

Presently, however, 20 are authentic members of the state House of Assembly and five members out of them sat and reportedly impeached the Speaker, Lawal, last week.

A member,  Honourable Omiata Jimoh (PDP Yagba East) had moved a motion, urging the assembly to summon the governor and begin the impeachment process on the deputy governor.

The motion, was seconded by Aliu Akuh (PDP Omala) during their sitting in Abuja,  which was presided over by the embattled Speaker  Lawal. The sitting had the Maze, the symbol of authority of the assembly strategically positioned.

Honourable Omiata, in a motion, stated that the dissolution of the Local Government Service Commission, which, he said, was a statutory body created by law, was illegal and should be reverted, adding that “abolishment of one  per cent from the joint account of state and local government  without repeal of the law be disregarded and the status quo be maintained within.”

He added that all “institutions or directives of the state government with respect to Local Government Service Commission, State joint Local Government Account, Universal Basic  Education, Pension Bureau, contrary to the extant law establishing them, be disregarded.”

The lawmaker insisted that the House of Assembly, being an institution created by law, “whose operations are guided by prescribed laws and rules, have no reference to recognise any person or group of persons  as the leadership of the assembly  other than Honourable Momoh Jimoh Lawal , the Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly.”

He explained that the governor of the State, Mr Yahaya Bello,  should, by no means and in whatever guise, communicate, receive or recognise anything from the group of five led by Honourable Ahmed Umar and that any  transactions from the executive to or from the group of five shall be considered as fraudulent and met with legal resistance.

Omiata, however, informed that the council chairmen embarking on exercises  that were capable of breaching the peace of their council areas should  desist and return to status quo and the back-up vehicle forcefully towed out of the official residence of Momoh Jimoh “ should be  returned as a matter of urgency within the next 24 hours.”

The 14 members that sat and presided over by the Speaker,  Lawal,  adopted all the motions and adjourned till  March 8.

Tribune……

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