Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello have denied knowledge of any crisis in the House of Assembly, nor the decision of the House of Representatives to take over its functions.
Speaking with journalists at the State House Abuja, Bello insisted that there was peace in the state and that the state lawmakers were still sitting .
The House of Representatives had on March 9 taken over the functions of the Assembly over the crisis that engulfed it, enforcing the provision of Section 11 (4) of the 1999 Constitution, which states that the National Assembly can take over the functions of any state assembly that is engulfed in crisis.
Recall that five members of the Assembly had purportedly removed the Speaker, Momoh Jimoh Lawal, and elected Umar Imam as the new Speaker.
The House of Representatives had also urged the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, to immediately seal off the Assembly since the House has taken over its functions.
However, Bello who met behind closed doors with the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kari said, “My House (of Assembly) is sitting and we have absolute peace in Kogi State.
“I am not aware of that the National Assembly is supposed to have taken over the state Assembly, the state is absolutely in peace and legislative activities are ongoing.
“I am in the Executive and the Executive is functioning and we are doing the best we can, so legislature its their own business and they are on it.
“I have a Speaker that is sitting right now so I don’t know if there is any problem there.”
Asked if the Speaker he referred to was the one installed by five lawmakers, the governor said he was not aware that there were two Speakers.
He also confirmed reports that his administration was yet to receive the bailout fund adding that the state had applied for bailout from the Federal Government, but the process was still ongoing.
“We applied for it and its under processing so right now I have not gotten any bail-out yet. I think to the best of my knowledge, the last administration either did not go on with the process properly, which we are doing now to correct whatever was not done properly, so that we can access it for our people,” he said.
The governor also urged the people of the state to remain calm and join him in the task of rebuilding and moving the state forward.
“My people should remain calm. Kogi State has bled over a long period of time and this is not the time for political crisis.
“This is the time to work and I am here to work. I am not here to have any political fuss with anybody. Whoever is ready should join me and let’s fix Kogi State,” he said.
