By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
The Plateau State Police Command gave reasons on Tuesday, why the state House of Assembly was sealed off by its personnel.
The State Police Command said that the sealing of the state complex was to prevent a breakdown of law and order as a result of the leadership crisis that is rocking members of the State House of Assembly.
Abok Nuhu and Yakubu Sanda, two lawmakers are claiming the Speakership of the Assembly.
On October 18, 2021, Abok Nuju was purportedly impeached as a Speaker, while Sanda held sway during the period, but last week, Abok Nuhu got a court judgment that ordered his reinstatement, thereby, insisting on gaining access to the premises to preside over plenary despite the presence of policemen.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday in Jos, the state capital, the Commissioner of Police, Bartholomew Onyeka, explained that the police sealed the Assembly following an intel that some persons had mobilised thugs from different local government areas of the state to unleash mayhem.
He added that the state’s House of Assembly is safe and that neither life nor property was lost following the police’s intervention at the complex.
He explained, “It will be a negligence and dereliction of duty on my part as the CP here on the Plateau if, having gotten the above intelligence, I fail to do that for which I’m here to do.”
According to him, the deployment of police personnel to the assembly was not targeted at any group or persons but merely a preventive measure to maintain peace, protect lives and property and to prevent the breakdown of law and order, saying that the police, being a party in the suit, filed a stay of execution on the same 3rd of April 2023, which was equally served on the parties concerned.
He stated that from that period, a series of meetings have been held with the view toward ensuring that the Plateau State House of Assembly complex is secured adequately but the two parties have refused to settle their differences. For that reason, the House remains closed until all disputing issues are settled.
He appealed to all law-abiding citizens of Plateau State to go about their lawful businesses and the warring parties to seek peaceful ways of settling their differences in accordance with the rule of law for the existence of peaceful coexistence in the state.
