Assembly crisis: once again, representatives give the governors of Benue, Zamfara a week Grace

Assembly crisis: once again, representatives give the governors of Benue, Zamfara a week Grace

… as suspended state legislators, CSO, lawyers appear before the panel

The governor of Abuja (Core reporter) Hyacinth at the Benue State and his state counterparts of Zamfara, the governor Dauda Lawal and the leadership of the two houses of the assembly, had another grace to appear in front of the panel of the room of representatives on Thursday, 14 May 2025.

The two governors and the leadership of their various houses of the assembly were absent on Thursday, during the hearing of the petition in front of the Committee for the public petition of the Chamber, in the National Assembly, Abuja.

The petition was based on the suspension of 13 members of the Benue assembly house and 10 members of the House of Assembly of the State of Zamfara, from February 2024. The petition written by a group of lawyers under the aegis of Guardians of Democracy, was laid on the floor of the Chamber, on March 27, 2025, by the vice president of the house, Hon. Philip Agbese.

At the inaugural session of the panel on Thursday, the Hon. Douglas Akya, representing Makurdi South, led the suspended members Benue, while the Hon. Aliyu Ango Kagara, representing Talata Mafara South and minority leader, led the members of Zamfara.

The folk activist and erudite lawyer, Ihensekhien Samuel Junior, councilor of the signatories, who led a team of 12 lawyers on Thursday, urged the National Assembly to give the question the accelerated hearing, loosening the fears, there were no satisfied to commit themselves to court.

“So let’s base our petition on this. The essence of our complaint in which we brought to this committee is that, in particular in the state of Zamfara, where you had some members, in the range of 11 members of the assembly of the State Chamber of Directors, presumably on the details and instructions of the executive arm of the government in that state for 16 consecutive months.

“In addition, you had some members of Benue House of Assembly, even 13 of them have been illegally suspended. And in particular, when you look at these two scenarios, find that it is not possible for these two different houses of the assembly to form a quorum to make a decision to sit.

“So the question is: these few members can legitimately and legally form a quorum to proceed in the duties of the legislation of these states? This is all the land of what we have presented before the Chamber of Representatives and where they find merit in our petition, which can consequent constitutional functions such as their laws as jurisprudence, as their constitutional functions can be clearly defined as their underground as the law as the constitutional law Constitutional functions as clearly defined by a constitutional law such as their constitutional solutions such as their constitutional solutions as clearly defined by a constitutional work such as their constitutional solutions as clearly defined by a constitutional work such as their constitutional solutions as clearly defined by the possible.

“More specifically, the house has a very apparent power, the residual power and the powers of prevalence and some other powers donated to them by the Constitution, for investigative and finally prevails over the leadership of the respective houses of the assembly to use the ADR or other roads, to resolve the issues. IHENSEKHIEN told journalists after sitting.

For its part, the new president of the Committee for the public petitions of the Chamber, the Hon. Laori Kwamoti, appealed to suspended members and signatories to remain calm, ensuring the game reasons of his committee.

“I want to ask with us, that we will follow this procedure diligently. We would like to make sure that, nobody is the right to be trampled here. You must trust us, to allow us to serve you better,” he said.

Hon. Nwogu Mathew, vice -president of the Committee who chaired the session on Thursday, said that the leadership of the Committee has recently been remedied, giving space to emerge new president and members.

During the update until May 14, 2025, to allow governors and leadership of the assembly to participate, the Hon. Nwogu said that the time of grace would also allow the Committee to verify through its registers, with the point of view to allow a new leadership of the Committee to judge the case.

Recall that the House of Representatives has extended the invitations to the governors of the leadership of the assembly and Friday 2 May 2025, to appear in front of the panel to reveal the logic behind the suspensions of their members, thus hindering the legislative activities in their respective states.