Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora

Omololu Ogunmade

Former Senate Deputy Minority Leader, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, yesterday criticised the decision of the ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives to suspend activities of the Kogi State House of Assembly, saying the move may suggest a kind of “meddlesomeness” in the Assembly affairs.

Speaking with THISDAY in a telephone conversation, Mamora, who said he was worried by the committee’s action, added that any intervention at all by the National Assembly must be on a friendly basis and in cognisance with Section 305 of the 1999 Constitution, which according to him, borders on insecurity and public order in the affected state.
He also said such intervention must be only with a view to finding amicable solution to the crisis.

According to him, any matter which violates Section 92 of the 1999 Constitution which stipulates that impeachment of the Speaker of a House of Assembly must be carried out by two-third majority of all members of the House can only be reversed by the court of competent jurisdiction as was the case when former Oyo State Governor Rashidi Ladoja was reinstated by the court after he was illegally impeached by the Assembly in 2005.

Emphasising that the National Assembly lacks the power to suspend activities of any Assembly, Mamora said the National Assembly is only empowered to legislate for any Assembly if a state of emergency was declared in such state, adding that since no state of emergency has been declared in Kogi “care must be taken not to give the impression of meddlesomeness.”

Further, he said: “My own understanding is that it is within the context of declaration of a state of emergency in a state that the National Assembly can legislate for a House of Assembly just as was the case in Plateau and Ekiti States.”
What exists in Kogi Assembly is just a skirmish just as was the case in Ogun in the last term and National Assembly did not suspend the House activities.”