15 soldiers reportedly prevent lawmakers from State Assembly

Men of the Nigerian Army had reportedly prevented members of the Kogi State House of Assembly from entering the parliament on Tuesday, May 31, 2016.

According to a report by Punch Newspaper, the soldiers, numbering 15, stormed the State House of Assembly, where they turned back legislators from sitting.

This is coming following the rumble over the seat of the Speaker as the house had been divided into two factions namely the G15, led by the embattled Speaker, Mr. Momoh-Jimoh Lawal and G5.

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While the members of the G15 had reportedly secured an Abuja court ruling to validate Lawal as Speaker and went ahead to hold a plenary session last Thursday, May 26, 2016, a group of five lawmakers, who operated on the platform of the G5 are said to have refused the ruling.

It was further reported that the soldiers that barricaded the Kogi State Assembly complex, arrived the parliament in a truck as early as 6am after which they dislodged the anti-riot policemen, who had previously manned the Assembly’s gate

The spokesperson for the G15, Matthew Kolawole, had reportedly expressed shock at the turn of events saying his colleagues were shocked to discover that soldiers from the Army Records Unit, Kogi, had barricaded the Assembly’s gate.

However, the Special Adviser to the Governor Yahaya Bello on Media and Strategy, Alhaji Abdulkareem Abdulmalik, denied government’s involvement in the Assembly's crisis saying the security men were there to prevent a breakdown of law and other.