Chaos in House of Reps over principal officers

The House of Representatives was forced to adjourn for a month yesterday after members came to blows over choice of principal officers.Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won control of the House after the February 28 poll, but they have been factionalised since the election of Yakubu Dogara as Speaker.Dogara defied the party to […]

The House of Representatives was forced to adjourn for a month yesterday after members came to blows over choice of principal officers.
Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won control of the House after the February 28 poll, but they have been factionalised since the election of Yakubu Dogara as Speaker.
Dogara defied the party to contest the election for speakership and subsequently won with the help of the opposition PDP.
This has enraged his party which on Monday presented him with a list of members to be appointed as House principal officers as a way of restoring unity and peace in the party.
The Speaker failed to read the letter from the APC chairman when the House session began but instead called for the House to go into executive session to discuss how the principal officers would be elected.

At this point majority of the APC members demanded that the Speaker read the letter from their chairman.
Banners like “Members were elected through party, the party is supreme” were hoisted by some lawmakers.
There was a counter protest and for almost two hours the House went into chaos.
The APC in a letter had nominated and sent to the Speaker a list containing Femi Gbajabiamila as the House leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa as his deputy; Mohammed Tahir Monguno as chief whip and Paly Iriase to serve as Monguno’s deputy.
In the fracas that ensued some members rushed for the mace, the symbol of authority in the House, one of them succeeded in taking it away from the Speaker’s table but the Sergeant-at-Arms retrieved it after a struggle.
The chaos gradually increased in intensity, from shouting matches, to hurling insults at each other. Someone threw a punch into another member’s face, it was reciprocated and others joined in the melee.
Soon clothes were torn as the fighting went on in the honourable House. In anger a lawmaker got hold of a chair and hurled it on a file of House’s Rules and Orders booklets.
Gbajabiamila, a ranking member of the House tried to appeal to his colleagues to behave in an honourable manner, he succeeded to a point.
When the melee started, the Speaker placed his hands on his head, with eyes wild open in bewilderment at the turn of events.
Some members of the opposition PDP, the Speaker’s main backers moved to his table. They were joined by the trio of Gbajabiamila, Mohammed Tahir Monguno and Leo Ogor and conferred for a while, apparently on how to restore order and calmness.
Finally order was restored, the mace was returned at around 12:35, and the speaker found his voice. He called for a motion for the House to revert to its proceeding and the motion was seconded by Goni Bukar (APC, Yobe), whose recognition by the Speaker as the “Acting House leader” drew another round of uproar.
Dogara, while reacting to the development, said “the events of today were unfortunate. Let me remind us of the fact that, we are a very, very fortunate. In a nation of 170 million people only 360 of us are selected or elected to represent the people and we should be grateful to our constituents for sending us here.
“To be candid, we have promised so much in the course of our elections and even the very party I belong to, the APC, we have promised change and Nigerians expect us to really talk about those matters, those issues that bother them most, they want to hear us talk about unemployment, poverty, in my region they want us to address insecurity and as long as this House is divided and not united we cannot achieve that.
“As to the issues that led to the fracas today, we will sit down as leaders and resolve whatever differences we have to ensure that this matter, as quickly as possible, be resolved and that is what we will do by the Grace of God.”
He then adjourned the session until July 21.