By Kemi Yesufu

That the Kogi State House of Assembly has known no peace since  December 2015 is a well known fact. But it was on Wednesday, March 9 that a major intervention on the crisis in the Confluence State was made with the House of Representatives announcing its takeover of the assembly. The House also ordered the Inspector-General of Police
(IGP), Solomon Arase to immediately seal off the premises of the assembly, declaring the supposed impeachment of the embattled Speaker, Momoh Lawal Jimoh, null and void.
The House decision followed the adoption of the report from its ten-man investigative panel which looked into Jimoh’s alleged removal.  Recall that following the adoption of a motion entitled “Illegal Removal of Kogi State House of Assembly” moved on Tuesday February 23  by Karimi Sunday under matters of urgent public importance, the House inaugurated a committee headed by the Deputy Whip, Pally Iriase to investigate the circumstances surrounding Jimoh’s impeachment.
The embattled Speaker had also along with 14 of his colleagues on Wednesday, February 17 petitioned the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, seeking his intervention, saying another lawmaker, Umar Imam and four others announced themselves as the new leaders of the Kogi Assembly.
Presenting the report of the Committee, Iriase described the actions taken by the Imam led group as an affront to the legislature, adding that not only did the self declared new Speaker of the Kogi assembly and his other colleagues fail to form a quorum, plenary did not hold on the day they claimed to have impeached Jimoh.
Iriase, who warned that the fragile peace in Kogi could be broken if the House does not take definite action, stressed that several groups in the state have stayed calm with the hope that the House will step -in to restore order. The lawmaker while calling for the House to invoke Section 11, Sub-Section 4 to take over the assembly, equally informed the House that while Imam and his group refused to meet with the committee, arguing that they had obtained what he described as a non- existent Court injunction, Governor Yayaha Bello met with the delegation from the House.
He explained that the governor denied being behind Jimoh’s removal. He told the House that, rather, the governor accused the lawmaker of misleading him by saying he was willing to resign his position.  Indeed, it has been speculated that the governor met with Jimoh  and 13 other Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members suggesting that the Speaker of the assembly be replaced by one of the seven All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers, preferably a member who is not from  Kogi Central where he and Jimoh come from. It has also been said that Governor Bello for the sake of equity suggested that the Speaker should come from Kogi West. Like the governor told the team from Abuja, many say Jimoh accepted to resign. And for indigenes of Kogi state,  what is happening to Jimoh is quite ironic as the embattled Speaker came into office under similar circumstance. In November 2012, Jimoh was favoured by Governor Idris Wada over the then Speaker, Abdulahi Bello, who resigned after weeks of crisis.
But none of the past shenanigans in Kogi seemed to bother  lawmakers  when it was time to take a stand on the issue. Not even Razak Atunwa  who reminded his colleagues on the floor that as Speaker of the Kwara assembly, he was among those who criticised Jimoh for supporting Bello’s removal. Despite this, he condemned what occurred in the Kogi assembly. Indeed, the decision of the House had the backing of majority of members, several of who took turns during the debate on the matter to insist that the House resists what they described as a case of impunity.
Though it took time, when the IGP finally sealed off the premises of Kogi Assembly, he received commendation. Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazak Namdas told this paper that the seal off of the Kogi assembly complex was in order. He disclosed that the House will only direct the exit of the police from the Kogi Assembly when Jimoh returns to office as Speaker.
“The House invoked Section 11 Sub-Section 4 to take over the Kogi State Assembly and this was because of the crisis in the assembly. As at now, there is still no peace in the assembly. And since the House will not condone impunity and lawlessness, we will continue to carry out the legislative functions of the Kogi Assembly until when sanity is restored”, he said.
Days after Namdas reiterated the stand of lawmakers,  Dogara, said in far away Ondo State that the House intervened in Kogi to save democracy.
Dogara spoke at the palace of Olowo of Owo Kingdom,  Oba Folagbade Olateru Olagbegi.  He said: “It is only when democracy is threatened that we raise our voices. And I remember we have been doing that in this government in how we handled the crisis in Kogi State House of Assembly. It was actually an APC leader who led investigation into the matter and we condemned the impunity even as members of the ruling party. This is the change we are talking about.”
Maybe Dogara spoke too early on his belief that the “Change” government adheres to the constitutionally enshrined principle of the separation of powers as days after his pronouncement, the House summoned the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami  and the IGP. Members were ticked off that Malami told Arase in his letter with reference number: HAGF/NPF/ 2016/ Vol.1 and dated April 5, 2016, that there wasn’t sufficient legal basis for the directive from the House to him to seal the assembly. The AGF in the letter opined that the constitution presumes that the general security situation in the state should have deteriorated to the extent that the state Assembly finds it difficult or impossible to operate or carry out its legislative functions. The AGF allegedly directed the IGP to disregard the directive of the National Assembly claiming that the resolution of the legislative body was wrong even as he described the crisis as a misunderstanding among the legislators which didn’t pose a security threat to the state.
Malami further stated in the letter, that the declaration by the National Assembly that the alleged impeachment of the speaker of the state assembly by five members of the assembly’ was ‘null and void’ was an exercise of judicial power by the legislature, contrary to Section 6 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), as it is a matter that should be determined judicially on the application of the affected persons.
But the House would have none of this as it invited the IGP and the AGF to appear before a 22-man adhoc committee to explain the reasons behind their actions.
The IGP appeared before the committee chaired by the Majority Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila explaining that he did not intentionally ignore the directive of the National Assembly to seal the Kogi State House of Assembly complex.
The IGP blamed what happened on a breakdown of communication, saying, that as an officer of the law, he is bound to abide by the laid down rules and obey constituted authority such as the National Assembly.
The AGF failed to make an appearance before the committee on the day the IGP did, to the anger of lawmakers. And when he did a week latter, in what looked like a maneuver to save face for the ruling party, Gbajabiamila told journalists after a closed door session with the AGF, who was accompanied by both Special Advisers to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang and Hon Sulieman Kawu, that the committee was not in a hurry to investigate the matter as it had discovered that there were a number of issues that have to be carefully resolved.
“There are lot of constitutional issues between the Attorney-General’s office and the National Assembly, that we need to look into not just at face value” he said.
“There is no doubt that the AGF wrote a letter to the IGP and it’s clear that the IGP acted on the letter. So, it’s the content of the letter that we discussed and we discussed it, constitutionally bringing out all the issues he (AGF) raised. And we will resolve all these by the next week”, he added.
Finally, when the report from the committee was submitted, it was unanimously carried, showing that the House was bent on standing by its takeover of the Kogi assembly.
The House again ordered the Inspector-General of Police to seal off the Kogi Assembly complex.
The House also declared all resolutions, laws and actions taken by the State Assembly from the date of the National Assembly take-over, null and void. This is even as it subsequently directed  Governor of Kogi, Yahay Bello to immediately send his budget and other Executive Bills to the National Assembly for consideration as stipulated in section 11 of the constitution.
Presenting the committee’s report, Gbajabiamila, said following the Attorney-Generals’ advice, the Inspector General of Police went ahead to reopen the Kogi assembly without further recourse to the National Assembly.  He decried the fact that the Umar Imam group purportedly passed the budget of Kogi State and continued to make laws for the state contrary to sections 98 and 100 of  the Nigerian Constitution, adding that the  Attorney General was wrong in advising the IGP to reopen the Kogi Assembly after it had been taken over by the National Assembly by operation of law, to wit, section 11 (4) of the Nigerian Constitution.
The recommendations of the committee read: “That the Attorney General immediately withdraw his letter and advice to the Inspector General. That the Attorney General be reprimanded for undermining the authority of the legislature. That the Attorney General proceed to court if he has any issue with the resolution of the National Assembly on this matter or any matter in the future.
“That the Inspector General of Police immediately re-seal the Kogi State Assembly pending the resolution of the Kogi crisis. That the Inspector General of Police be reprimanded for undermining the authority of the legislature”.