Protest Hits Force Headquarters Over Nasarawa Assembly Crisis

Some residents of Nasarawa State under the aegis of Concerned Nasarawa Stakeholders Forum on Wednesday staged a peaceful protest at the premises of the Force Headquarters in Abuja over the ongoing crisis rocking the state assembly.

Naija News gathered that the protesters were seen carrying different placards with inscriptions such as ‘Governor Sule, don’t set the state on fire’ ‘Nasarawa assembly must be freed from bondage’, ‘Police cannot be partisan’, ‘Assembly elections outside assembly complex is illegal’, among others.

Naija News earlier reported that the police in Nasarawa State sealed the Nasarawa House of Assembly Complex to prevent further crises that can lead to the breakdown of law and order.

It was gathered last Wednesday that the leadership crisis in the Nasarawa State House of Assembly had taken a different turn with the emergence of two Speakers of the House.

Last Tuesday crisis broke out at the Nasarawa State Assembly when the majority of lawmakers-elect stormed the Assembly complex as early as 3 am to stop the inauguration of the 7th Assembly in the state.

The leadership crisis in the Nasarawa Assembly erupted from claims that the state governor, Abdullahi Sule allegedly planned the inauguration of the 7th Assembly without 13 members of the House.

Following this, two factions of the House eventually produced two Speakers, the former speaker, Ibrahim Balarabe-Abdullahi, and a member representing Kokona East constituency, Mr Daniel Ogah Ogazi.

However, on Thursday last week, the police were reported to have opened the Assembly complex to the Balarabe-Abdullahi-led faction to convene an emergency sitting of the house where he swore in principal officers to run its affairs.

Protesting this act, the convener of the forum, David Manga who led the protest yesterday said the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, to call the Commissioner of Police in Nasarawa State, Maiyaki Muhammed Baba to order.

Manga said or better still redeploy him from the state because of his partisanship in the affairs of the assembly.