National Assembly beefs up security as senator resumes today

dimeji akinloye

May 15, 2018 7:25 AM

The Senate said Omo-Agege will be allowed to perform his legislative duties pending the outcome of the the red chamber's appeal.

The Senate has said that it will not prevent

An Abuja High Court had on Thursday, May 10, nullified Omo-Agege’s 90 legislative days suspension by the Senate.

The court declared the suspension unconstitutional, saying that the Senate has no power to suspend a member beyond 14 days.

Following the court ruling and Omo-Agege's envisaged resumption on Tuesday, May 15, 2018, security was beefed up at the National Assembly on Monday, especially around the senate chambers.

It was learnt that the move was to forestall likely security breach as recorded on April 18, when suspected hoodlums invaded the chambers and made away with the mace - the Senate symbol of authority.

Omo-Agege was linked to the incident, which occurred while plenary was ongoing. He had defied the suspension order on him and attended the proceedings.

Senate complies with ruling

Reacting to the court ruling on Monday, the spokesman for the Senate, Sabi Abdullahi, said pending the outcome of the appeal filed by the red chamber against the judgment, omo-Agege will be given access to partake in plenary on Tuesday.

"The senate leadership has been briefed by our lawyers on last Thursday judgement of the federal high court, Abuja, on whether the Senate has the legal authority to suspend a member for certain misconduct or not", Abdullahi said in a statement issued on Monday.

"We have equally filed an appeal against the judgement of the court and a motion for stay of execution of the judgement at the court of appeal.

"As an institution that obeys the law and court orders, the Senate has decided that it will comply with the judgement of the federal high court and do nothing to stop Senator Ovie Omo-Agege from resuming in his office and at plenary from tomorrow May 15, 2018, pending the determination of the application for stay of execution.

"The senate has been advised that since the motion for stay of execution of the Thursday (May 10, 2018) judgement shall be heard and possibly determine on Wednesday, May 16, 2018, we shall therefore respect the subsisting high court judgement and await the appellate court decision on the pending motion", he added.

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Omo-Agege was suspended after alleging that the Senate's amendment to section 25 of the electoral act, 2010 (as amended), bordering on reordering of elections sequence was targeted at President Muhammadu Buhari.

dimeji akinloye