A member of the House of Representatives from Oyo State, Adedeji Stanley Olajide, on Friday turned a security guard, chasing journalists out of a public hearing at the National Assembly.
Olajide who represents Ibadan South West/North West Federal Constituency exhibited what many described as “toutish display” akin to garage boys on Friday at the public hearing organised by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on COVID-19 on the need to investigate the status of medical research in the fight against COVID-19 and other diseases in Nigeria.
Dr. Osagie Ehanire, the Minister of health, minister of state for health, Senator Olorunimbe Mamora, the director general of NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu and other heads of agencies and parastatals in the Ministry of health were all in attendance.
The drama started when a member of the ad hoc committee observed that the meeting room was becoming crowded and sought the directive of the chairman of the committee, Rep. Haruna Mshelia (APC, Borno) to control the number of people at the venue.
Consequently, Rep. Haruna Mshelia instructed that no one should be allowed into the hall again so that social distancing could be maintained.
“Please, we have the minister of health with us here and we have to adhere strictly to the PTF social distancing recommendations. So, Sergeant at arms, please, open the doors but dont allow any more people to come in.
“Let’s just maintain the number we have in the hall. Hon. Colleague, your observation is sustained”, Hon. Mshelia stated.
But instead of preventing more people from entering the hall, Olajide, arrogated to himself the functions of a security man and started walking out guests and journalists out of the hall.
Olajide ordered the sergeant at arms to drag out any guest or journalists who dares to question his unparliamentary and hostile behaviour towards them.
His actions led to a protest by the journalists at the venue, who all walked out of the investigation and threatened to leave.
Following this, two members of the ad hoc committee, led by Hon. Aniekan Umannah from Akwa Ibom intervened and pleaded with the journalists to forget about the embarrassment and continue with the coverage of the investigation. Most of the journalists refused to return to the hall.
It is on record that Olajide, a first time lawmaker in the House has never sponsored any bill in the last one year neither has he sponsored a single motion on the floor of the House.
This is not the first time Olajide is seen engaging in a dishonourable behaviour. At the last meeting of the committee, he was seen harassing people for not wearing face mask, when he had none on his face and many of the lawmakers did not wear any.
His behaviour eventually made journalists and the guests to lose track of the purpose for the hearing due to unnecessary distraction occasioned by his loud noise and confrontation with people he chased out.