Rivers State House of Assembly embassy sealed by police - Copyright : Iyalla Adaye
Iyalla Adaye, Nigeria – Brawl in Rivers House of Assembly
with claims and counter claims of impeachment of speaker… 3 legislators
injured.
There was a serious brawl Tuesday at the Rivers state House of Assembly
as factions in the on-going war in the control of the Assembly engaged
each other in physical combat with three of them reportedly
hospitalized.
IT’S UP TO YOU! features texts and photos by the community and for
the community. This article was sent to us by Iyalla Adaye and is
published here with permission. StarAfrica is YOUR website.
Those said to have been sent to hospital include leader of the house,
Chidi Lloyd,
Mike Okey Chindah Martins Amaewhule the last two being members of the five anti-Amaechi lawmakers.
The author of this report gathered that the five members of the House,
believed to be loyal to the minister of state for Education,
Nyesom Wike,
had sat in the chambers of the House and announced the impeachment of
the Speaker as at 9.00 am in the morning ‘electing’ Evans Bibi,
spokesman of the group to take over the seat of the Speaker.
Fight ensued when
Bipi and
Victor Ihunwo,
another member of the anti-Amaechi legislators attacked Chidi Lloyd
with video camera stands, and in the process damaged over 30 computer
sets in the chambers of the House.
It was also observed that men of the State Police Command, drafted to
protect the assembly did nothing to prevent the free-for-all, just as
men of the State Fire Service were drafted into the complex, so as to
take care of any attempt to burn down the complex.
In the ensuing fracas, the Speaker,
Amaechree, the
leader of the House, Hon. Chidi Lloyd and the two members representing
Obio/Akpor 1 and Obio/Akpor 11 constituencies, Hon.
Micheal Okechukwu Chinda and Hon.
Martins Amaewhule were seriously injured.
While Amachree, Lloyd, and Amaewhule were rushed to an
undisclosed hospital, treated, and discharged, Chinda, as at press time was still responding to treatment at
Saint Patrick’s Hospital, located in the Ogbunabali area of Port Harcourt
The House leadership later returned to the house in company of the state governor,
Rotimi Amaechi and the Deputy
Tele Ikuru to present a request to the house for some minor amendments on the 2013 budget.
Chidi Lloyd – photo by Iyalla Adaye
The governor later left allowing Ikuru to make the presentation to
the assembly which was later granted by a unanimous vote of the 23
members present at the time the presentation was made by Ikuru.
Speaking while presenting the request on the floor of the House, Ikuru
said the minor amendment became necessary so as to enable the state
government continue to deliver dividends of democracy to the people of
the state.
He stated that the minor amendment, if approved would not reduce or
increase N490,220 million budgeted in the 2013 appropriation act, but
will only affect the capital expenditure of the budget.
Reacting to the earlier incident,
Otelemaba Dan-Amachree told journalist that there was nothing like an impeachment
insisting he was still the Speaker of the House.
“
As far as this House is concerned, the leadership of the House
has not changed. I’ m the Speaker of Rivers State House of assembly and
all the other officers and the clerk are here with me. The leadership of
the House is intact and what Evans Bipi told you is pure fallacy, lie”
On the main target of the whole impeachment saga being governor Amaechi, Amachree said “
I
don’t know where this rumour is coming from, but we just finished our
sitting. There was no attempt as far as we are concerned to impeach me
or anybody. We are even shocked to hear that in the news. It is not
true.
Look at us; can five members sit to impeach the speaker? We are
about 27 members here. We don’t know what their aims were but today, in
fact, we did not know there would be chaos in the House. So, we went to
the House as usual and we were exchanging pleasantries before Evans Bipi
attacked me and the leader of the House. Then Hon. Chinda joined him.
But we quickly arrested the situation and started our deliberation”.
He denied the allegation that the Governor was at the assembly saying “
How?
How can. The governor was never in the Assembly. What happened was that
the deputy Governor came to the House to present some minor amendments
(viament) in 2013 Budget. If you watch our proceedings you will see the
deputy governor and not the governor. So, the governor was not there.
The speaker also expressed disappointment with the role of Police at the
assembly noting that despite his application for extra security to the
Commissioner of police and Brigade Commander there was no security
beaf-up at the assembly.
He said “
Am so surprised and shocked because yesterday I officially
directed the clerk of the House to the Commissioner of Police for
security because of what happened on the 6th of May when some hoodlums
invaded the Assembly. We didn’t want a repeat of that, so I directed the
Clerk to write to the CP and also the Brigade Commander, but to my
greatest surprise I did not see one single army there (Assembly).
The police I saw were acting funny. One of my colleagues was even
beaten by the police. The computers in the hallowed chambers were all
destroyed by the five honourable members (lawmakers). In that hallowed
chamber, honourable members can do anything there. It happens in every
parliament.
What we are concerned about is for a member to bring in hoodlums to attack his fellow members,
but as colleagues we can fight in the chamber. But outside the chamber,
it is unfortunate that the police will also be there and watching
hoodlums attacking members.
As a House, we would look into it, but we don’t have right over the
Police. What we will do is that we will write to the National Assembly.
We will do a presentation or we will send a formal complaint to the
NASS.
The House will continue to seat, but for now we have adjourned sine
die, but we can reconvene anytime. For the House to impeach the
speaker, two third of members must agree. Now, count how many members
that are with me here. We are 23 members here, you can count us. No mace
was brought into the House”.
Also yesterday the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Otelema Dan
Amachree directed that the House be reconvened to consider an amendment
to the 2013 appropriation law which the Governor had communicated to him
via a letter and as if Mr. Speaker saw what was going to happen today,
he wrote a letter through the Clerk of the House to the Commissioner of
Police to provide security for today’s sitting and he also wrote to the
commander of 2 Amphibious Brigade who also doubles as the head of the
internal JTF. So when we got to work this morning, we saw the presence
of policemen numbering over 50 and we thought that this was in response
to Mr. Speaker’s request.
Shortly thereafter, I noticed that the five anti-Amaechi members
were discussing in clusters and calling on their boys to come in.
Initially, the policemen were searching everybody who would come into
the premises. I had to even come down at the gate and trekked into the
premises. So after a while, we learnt that there were phone calls and
the commissioner of police personally called the unit, the man in charge
to allow everybody in.
We went in as members who have not seen ourselves for some time
because of the crisis in the state. I was on my seat, without
provocation, Hon. Evans Bipi came to me in the full glare of everybody
on camera and started raining punches on me. As his leader I did not
react because I felt that it is something we could settle, whatever it
is, maybe I didn’t greet him also. So he continued when that continued,
the speaker intervened and said, ha, what’s happening. Then he reached
out for the tripod that stands the camera, used it freely on me, himself
and Michael Okechukwu Chinda. They flogged me to their satisfaction, I
didn’t just utter a word until Hon. Ihunwo graciously asked me to run
for my dear life because they have brought people with guns and of
course when I looked at the gallery they were shouting who is the Chidi
Lloyd, who is the Chidi Lloyd.
So at that point, I’m sure somebody may have reached out to the
governor of the state who came in with his own security because these
other policemen were there standing helplessly, watching what was going
on. So he came and rescued members out of the place. Then after a while
we heard that they had sat, that they were meeting, they were trying to
meet, they had procured a fake mace to the House, so we went back and I
took the mace where they were sitting, and then I sustained injury as a
result of the violence by Michael Chinda and Evans Bipi.
So while I was in the hospital the speaker and other members of the
House sat and heard the amendment that the governor sent, was presented
on his behalf by the deputy governor. Now these amendments are, the
governor said he was just seeking for us to via some sub heads for him
to enable him take care of certain unforeseen events such as flood and
all that. That is why we went to work for the state only to be dealt
with in the manner that they have dealt with us. I want to use this
opportunity while in the hospital here, I have received phone calls of
threat to life for my family and I.
Incidentally, I’m so helpless; I don’t know who to run to. I can’t
go to the commissioner of police because he is already in the arena;
he’s already on the other side. I’m appealing to well-meaning Nigerians
to pray for me and my family. That is the last hope we have resorted to
and that we also urge the National Assembly, the Senate President and
the Speaker of the House of Reps not to turn the other way on the events
of Rivers State. This could lead to something that we cannot imagine.
It had happened in Anambra State, people were laughing, today is Rivers
State nobody knows the next state it would be. If we are practicing a
democracy, let us please for crying out loud play by the rules.
Nigerians should pray for me and come to our aid. The state is under
siege. You can’t even vouch for the safety of the Governor. The people
are getting more dashed out on a daily basis.
Also Speaking the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr.
David Iyofor in an interview said the lawmakers will continue to sit under the Leadership of Rt. Hon. Otelemaba Dan Amachree
David added that members cannot impeach the Speaker through the House
saying as the House reconvene stressing that the Deputy Governor
Engineer Ikuru Tele who represented the governor, Rotimi Amaechi and
presented the amendment bill to the House.
Our guest is an independent journalist from the Niger Delta
region in Nigeria. He attended the Nigerian Institute of Journalism
(NIJ) in Lagos and the Empire Journalism Centre in Port Harcourt, Rivers
State, and has worked with several local and national newspapers. He is
a member of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria Rivers State
Council, FTAN, Tourism Reporters, and Niger Delta Universal Periodic
review and Nigeria Media Network on Human Rights. He plans to practice
journalism to its fullest.
Please read his other Niger Delta News articles.
Signature : Iyalla Adaye
Copyright : Iyalla Adaye