Victor's Blog: House Of Reps Adjourn Till December 3 (Photos)

Tambuwal, Speaker of the House of Representatives

It was a crisis expected: that the Nigerian police and the DSS counterparts would try to stop Speaker Aminu Tambuwal from doing his job after withdrawing his security aides two weeks ago. And it happened, triggering some bedlam in the hallowed chambers of Nigeria’s legislature, the second arm of government.
According to reports, pandemonium broke out at the National Assembly today as the House of Representatives reconvened to deliberate on the request by President Goodluck Jonathan to extend the State of Emergency in the three north east states ravaged by Boko Haram.
Though the Speaker eventually gained entrance into the complex, other lawmakers had to scale a fence to get into the complex.
Thursday’s resumption was to deliberate on a single agenda, which is “Consideration of Mr.President’s request for extension of the existing State of Emergency”, according to an earlier statement by the Speaker.
However, there was an alleged attempt to bar the Speaker’s entrance, as his media adviser tweeted, via @imamdimam, that security operatives had dispensed tear gas as well.

Meanwhile, the Senate President, David Mark has asked that the National Assembly be shut down till next week Tuesday.
The Inspector General of Police has also been summoned to explain the action of the security operatives.
The spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress, Lai Mohammed, confirmed to journalists at the APC secretariat in Abuja that security operatives prevented the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, from gaining entrance into the National Assembly Complex.
“I spoke with speaker Aminu Tambuwal five minutes ago and he confirmed to me that he has been locked out of the National Assembly complex at the second gate,” Mr. Mohammed said.
The APC spokesperson also said while Mr. Tambuwal is disallowed from entering the complex, his deputy, Emeka Ihedioha, is already in the chamber.
‎”The Speaker reconvene the House at the instance of the President who wrote a letter to the Speaker asking for an extension of the state of emergency in three states and now he is being ambushed and not allowed in, it is a sad development for our country
“There must be limit to impunity and we are being ridiculed in the eyes of the world.”
Speaker Aminu Tambuwal incurred the wrath of the ruling PDP after he announced his defection to the opposition All Progressives Congress on 28 October. He then adjourned the sitting of the House till 3 December. But on Tuesday, he announced an emergency reconvening of the House following President Jonathan’s request for an extension of the state of emergency in three north east states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.