The crisis rocking the Kogi State House of Assembly assumed a new dimension on Wednesday when the complex was finally sealed off by security agents.
This followed the failure of the lawmakers to resolve the leadership crisis that has bedevilled the assembly in the last three months.
According to Punch reports, the assembly complex on Wednesday, observed that the main entrance to the building was blocked by armed policemen who prevented the lawmakers from accessing the building.
The lawmakers were to conduct budget defence on Wednesday.The road leading to the complex was also barricaded by policemen who subjected workers of the assembly to scrutiny before allowing them in.
The security operatives claimed they were acting on instructions from the commissioner of police in the state and the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
Mr. Aliyu Akuh, deputy to the embattled Speaker, Momoh-Jimoh Lawal, said the crisis remained unresolved as an earlier directive to return to status quo ante by the House of Representatives was ignored by five members.
He said it was an aberration for five out of 20 members of the assembly to impeach the Speaker.
Akuh, who said the 15 remaining lawmakers considered the action of the minority as an infringement on the constitution, added that in a good democratic setting, such infringements could be challenged.
He said, “What happened with five members seeking to impeach a Speaker in an assembly of 20 members is an aberration and unheard of, and more so, that some members’ names and signatures were forged and included as being part of the plot.
“We had to go to the higher authority, which is the National Assembly, vested with the constitutional powers to intervene in such a situation. The House of Representatives ordered the seal off and it was concurred by the Senate.”
On the suit by the five members at the Federal High Court, Lokoja, challenging the intervention of the National Assembly on the impasse, Akuh said there was no order restraining the federal lawmakers from taking the decision
