Kogi House of Assembly suspends 10 members over lingering crisis

Kogi House of Assembly has suspended 10 members of the house for their alleged involvement in the leadership crisis rocking the state legislature since November 2015.

The suspension order issued on the floor of the house at plenary on Tuesday, followed the adoption of a report of the ad hoc committee commissioned on March 10.


The ad hoc committee was asked to investigate the sponsorship of the crisis and involvement of the National Assembly and its failure to ensure due process even at the instance of a court injunction.

Presenting the report, Mr John Abah (PDP-Ibaji), Chairman of the ad hoc committee, said the committee found that the House of Representatives was misguided by members who had interest in the crisis.

Abah said that the situation in the state had not resulted to a breakdown of law and order for the National Assembly to exercise its powers in invoking section 11(4) leaving out the provision of 11(5) of the constitution.

He said the 10 members had persistently fuelled the crisis and made it extremely difficult for the house to resolve the leadership impasse peacefully in order to carry out its lawful and constitutional responsibilities.

The committee, according to the chairman, recommended that all legal processes instituted in various courts be exhaustively determined to ensure due process, rule of law and justice to all parties.

Abah said it recommended that further deliberation on the action of the National Assembly would be tantamount to prejudice and urged the house to restrain itself from engaging the National Assembly on the matter.

The committee recommended that the 10 members indicted by the committee be suspended from sitting.

They are the embattled Speaker, Momo-Jimoh Lawal (PDP-Okene II), Matthew Kolawole (PDP-Kabba-Bunu), Aliyu Akuh (PDP-Omala), Victor Omofaiye (PDP-Ijumu) and Sunday Shigaba (PDP-Bassa).

Others are Alfa Momoh-Rabiu (APC-Ankpa II), Enenche Linus (APC-Olamaboro), Obaro Pedro (APC-Mopa-Muro), Ndako Idris (APC-Lokoja II) and Zakari Osewu (APC-Kogi-KK).

Seconding the motion for the adoption of the report, the Majority Leader, Friday Sanni (PDP-Igalamela-Odolu) urged the house to adopt the three recommendations of the committee.

The Speaker, Umar Imam, ruled on the adoption of the recommendations of the committee following overwhelming voice votes in favour of the report.