There’s been unending drama in the national assembly complex which ended by the Senate president ordering that the assembly complex be shut down till next week Tuesday to allow normalcy to return. The speaker of the house of representatives had suddenly reconvened the house to discuss the request of president Jonathan to extend emergency rule in Yobe, Adamawa and Borno states. But on arrival at the assembly complex, the speaker and other lawmakers with him were denied entry.
The speaker was later allowed entry after much entreaties but the lawmakers with him were not allowed in, this led to some lawmakers scaling the fence to enter and the police who had condoned the complex had to respond by firing tear gas. Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN)speaking on the whole messy development adviced the speaker to resign as a thing of honor. His speech, “My advice is that Tambuwal should honourably and voluntarily resign as Speaker of the House of Representatives in order for peace to reign in the National Assembly.
“Having defected from the political party on which platform he got to the National Assembly and became the Speaker, he should stop his present grandstanding because he cannot have his cake and eat it.
“Whether the courts have declared his seat vacant or not, whether he has been impeached or not, and whether it is constitutional for him to do so or not, he owes a moral obligation to resign now.
Ozekhome said that the Senate President did the right thing by suspending plenary till Tuesday next week so that the tension would calm down.
“The Senate President, by virtue of Section 53 (2) of the Nigerian Constitution, is the Chairman of the National Assembly and so is empowered to regulate the legislature which is bicameral.’’
He condemned the action of lawmakers who climbed the fence to get into the premises of the National Assembly complex.
The senior advocate said that what those lawmakers did smacked of `indecency, in-decorum and, above all, very shameful in the eyes of those who elected them and the international community. (NAN)