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All is not well with the legislative arm of Kogi as the State House of Assembly has impeached the Speaker and his deputy, the Majority Leader and his deputy, and the Deputy Chief Whip.
The impeachment of the officers, except for that of the speaker, followed allegations of gross misconduct, misuse of office levelled against him.
A document made available to TheNewsGuru indicated that the speaker was impeached for lack of confidence in his leadership of the house, hence the official No Confidence Vote signed by 24 of the 25 member house.
The impeachments took place on Friday on the floor of the House, except that of the speaker which notice was provided our correspondent after the pronouncement of the impeachment of other principal officers of the House.
ALSO READ: Kogi Assembly impeach 4 principal officers, suspend 3 others
The notice of impeachment for the other officers save for the speaker was signed by 17 of the members and the motion was moved by Hon. Enema Paul.
The house immediately replaced those impeached except the speaker with Hon Rabiu Alfa elected as the new Deputy Speaker, Muktar Bajeh (Majority Leader), Enema Paul (Deputy Chief Whip) and Dahiru Ahmed as Chief Whip.
The House equally dissolved all house committees and appointed new Committee members.
However, the group loyal to the impeached ranking officers made some documents available to TheNewsGuru where they informed our correspondent that the speaker, Matthew Kolawole was removed for diminishing the integrity of members.
According to the group, they” no longer have confidence in Rt. Hon. (Prince) Matthew Kolawole as the Speaker of the Honourable House owing to financial impropriety, high-hand edness, serial abuse of office, refusal to abide by the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended with regards to the constitutionally required yearly sittings and gross unparliamentary conduct that has all cumulatively brought the infegrity of the House of Assembly as an institution total disrepute and has furthermore reduced and destroyed the personal integrity of members before constituents in general.
“Accordingly, we hereby adopt the folowing Resolutions for their removal and suspension as follows:
” THAT IT BE RESOLVED:- and IT IS SO RESOLVED that RT. HON. (PRINCE) MATTHEW KOLAWOLE, is HEREBY REMOVED/IMPEACHED as the Speaker, of the Kogi State House of Assembly with effect from today in accordance with Section 92 (2) (C) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended AND SUSPENDED from the House pending the final report from the House Committee on ETHICS and PRIVILEGES upon investigation of the allegations bordering on gross misconduct in accordance with ORDER 10 RULE 65 Sub 12 of the Kogi State House of Assembly Standing rules.
“For Avoidance of doubt, Section 92 (2) () of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended provides that: “The Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly shall vacate his/their offices if they are removed from office by a resolution of the House of Assembly by the votes of not less than two-thirds majoriy of the members of the House.”
Meanwhile the State House of Assembly has suspended Hon. Ahmed Ahmed, Abdullahi Bello and Moses Ododo.
The suspension is to allow for investigation into allegations of Misconduct and misuse of office by the Lawmakers.
The suspension was unanimously supported by seventeen other Lawmakers.
TheNewsGuru backstory to Kogi Assembly unrest
It is 2016 all over again in the Kogi State House of Assembly. In that time, during the infancy of the current government of Yahaya Bello, the coinage “Nineteen Vs Six” became a national mantra.
At the time, the Assembly was balkanized into two groups with the minority group being loyal to the current government which supported the emergence of a first time legislator, Ahmed Imam as the speaker, while the majority made up of returnee PDP members refusing to accept that choice.
The controversy dragged on for months with the current speaker, Matthew Kolawole, the most vocal opposition.
He was passionate about their refusal saying it was unheard of that the minority party produced the speaker foisted on members by the Governor.
But after joining the ruling party, he was made the majority leader of the House while Governor Yahaya Bello had his way with his choice.
The politics that later played out was for the immediate past Speaker, Imam to get into the wrong books of the Governor which forced his to resign his position, paving the way for the incumbent speaker.
Since their return for second term, the Assembly has been enmeshed in many controversies with the speaker in the eye of the storm with allegations of misconducts and impropriety.
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