A crisis emerged on Tuesday with the emergence of two speakers in the Nasarawa Assembly.
Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi of the All Progressives Congress (APC) representing Umaisha-Ugya State constituency and Daniel Ogazi of the APC representing Kokona East constituency were ‘elected’ Speakers by two sets of lawmakers.
As early as 1 am, 13 Members elect, out of the 24 lawmakers led by Daniel Ogazi converged on the gate of the Assembly to gain entrance into the Chamber but were stopped by the police.
By 4 am, the 11 members-elect led by Abdullahi arrived at the Assembly complex with the intention to conduct the inauguration but met the 13 members-elect at the gate.
Around 7:30 am, the Acting Clerk of the Assembly, Ibrahim Musa, who a few days ago sent messages to members-elect about the inauguration of the 7th assembly by 10 am, issued another statement postponing the inauguration indefinitely.
But the 13 members-elect refused to leave the premises of the Assembly while the 11 members backed by Governor Abdullahi Sule moved to the Government House.
By 4 pm, the 11 members-elect with the acting Clerk, moved to the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs under heavy security men and conducted the inauguration where Hon Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi was unanimously elected Speaker.
Abdullahi has been the Speaker since 2015 until last week when the 6th Assembly came to an end paving way for a proclamation of the 7th Assembly by Governor Sule.
They proceeded to elect Hon Jacob Kudu representing Nasarawa Eggon East as the Deputy Speaker.
The Acting Clerk of the House administered the oath of office to the two presiding officers.
The 11 members and their Speaker quickly moved to the Government House and were received by Governor Abdullahi Sule and his Deputy, Dr Emmanuel Akabe who congratulated them on their inauguration and elections as speaker and deputy speaker respectively.
When the information got to the 13 members-elect at the Gate, they forced their way into the Assembly premises by jumping the fence but were unable to gain access to the main Chamber.
They conducted their inauguration where Ogazi was unanimously elected as the Speaker with Hon Mohammed Oyanki of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) representing Doma North as the Deputy Speaker.
It is reliably gathered that some powerful forces within Nasarawa APC are opposed to the Governor installing a Speaker of his choice and secured the commitment of the opposition members who are in the majority to produce a Speaker.
The ruling APC produced 11 members, PDP 8, Social Democratic Party(SDP) 3 and New Nigerian People Party(NNNP) 2 in the Assembly. (Culled from The Nation)
