It was a show of shame in Nasarawa State House of Assembly on Monday when Lawmakers of the state’s house of assembly engaged in a free-for-all at plenary.
The
disagreement The Cable learnt broke out as a result of the appointment
of 11 sole administrators by Tanko Al-Makura, governor of the state.
Announcing
the appointments on Saturday, Al-Makura explained that the tenures of
11 local government areas (LGAs) chairmen had elapsed and the “doctrine
of necessity” had to be invoked to swear in sole administrators.
He said
this was to avoid vacuum at the LGAs pending the conduct of council
elections. Subsequently, they were sworn in at the conference hall of
the government house on Monday.
However, the action did not go down well with a faction of the assembly, which accused the governor of illegality.
Though
the governor gave the assurance that election would be conducted as soon
as possible, those opposed to his action demanded that the election
should be conducted without any delay.
Trouble
started when Tanko Tunga, majority leader, moved a motion for the
suspension of six members for challenging the action of the governor.
The six members expressed reservation over this, accusing their colleagues of receiving financial inducement from the governor.
Suddenly,
the atmosphere became charged and the members threw caution to the
wind. While some took custody of the mace, others engaged in fisticuff,
with objects flying around the chamber.
One of the lawmakers had his clothes torn in the melee that ensued. It took the intervention of the police to restore normalcy.
After
normalcy was restored, plenary was adjourned. But some lawmakers went
into another sitting and moved the motion to suspend six of their
colleagues indefinitely.
Makpa Malla, one of the suspended lawmakers, said they would challenge the suspension in court.
He
described the appointment of the sole administrators as illegal, citing
section 7 sub-section 1 of the constitution to buttress his claim.
Malla said the house could not fold its hands and watch illegality thrive in the state.
“We are
kicking against the appointment of the sole administrators which only
existed in military era and as respecters of the rule of law, we must
ensure that the executive also respect the rule of law,” he said.
But
Abubakar Kana, also a lawmaker, disagreed with Malla, saying there was
no law guiding the operation of the sole administrators.
“The
sole administrators are standing on what law? Who is now determining the
salaries of the sole administrators and their tenure and if the sole
administrators commit an offence, what laws can the state use to punish
them?” he asked.