Chaos At Kogi Assembly Over Impeachment Of Speaker

Violence erupted yesterday, December 11, at the Kogi state House of Assembly, leaving no fewer than five members and some policemen seriously injured in the fracas.

Dangerous weapon were used and workers of the assembly and journalists had to scamper for safety, This Day reports.

Trouble started when some members of the House moved to impeach the speaker, Hon. Momoh Lawal and replace him with Hon. Godwin Osiyi from Ogori Mango state constituency.

The move resulted in a rowdy session and the speaker seized the mace and disappeared to reconvene the assembly comprising mainly his loyalists at 4.30 pm.

As he tried to leave the assembly complex, a fight broke out between his loyalist and those against him.

Some journalists covering the assembly were attacked, their iPads and other gadgets were smashed, while a reporter with NTA covering the assembly, who had earlier recorded the proceedings, was trailed by some thugs to NTA’s office and his camera seized.


It took the intervention of the security personnel manning the complex and a detachment of anti-riot policemen to stop the violence.

Despite the violence, the lawmakers still impeached the speaker, citing incompetence and replaced him with Osiyi.

The Kogi assembly is made up of 14 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members and 11 members of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The speaker was impeached by 17 out of 25 of the lawmakers.

Kogi has been in the eye of the storm since the November 21 governorship election, which was declared inconclusive by the .

Even after the supplementary election on December 5, there has been no lull in controversies from the state. A new government is scheduled for inauguration on January 27, 2016.

Kogi has been in the news a lot lately since the November 21 governorship election which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared inconclusive. As if that was not enough, the governorship candidate of the APC, Abubakar Audu died a day after, leading to another round of controversies.

However, a supplementary election was conducted on December 5 and Audu’s replacement, Yahaya Bello was declared winner of the Kogi election.