Hoodlums attack, injure Bauchi lawmakers, destroy cars, houses
By ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
No fewer than 50 hoodlums have attacked some members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly during a meeting on Monday.
The hoodlums who were armed with dangerous weapons, stormed the venue of the meeting along Sir Kashim Ibrahim road, few meters away from the Bauchi State Government House and attacked the lawmakers and in the process, injured some of them.
They also smashed cars and windows of the house, turning everything in the house upside down.
The incident is coming hours after some hoodlums attempted to set ablaze the House of Assembly complex but were prevented by security agencies who responded swiftly.
Following the incident, a combined team of security agents compromising of men of the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corp, the DSS and the Nigerian Army, were immediately drafted to the House where they took over the complex.
The Member representing Burra Constituency in Ningi LGA of the state, Ado Wakili, told journalists that: “We were inside, having a meeting when we suddenly heard noise and banging at the gate, as we rushed out to see what was happening, the hoodlums rushed in holding guns, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons.
“All of us scampered for safety and in the process, many of us including me, were injured as you can see on my face just below my eyes. They really turned everything upside down. By the time we came out, they had smashed all our cars and the windows of the house.”
Another lawmaker, a former Speaker of the House, Kawuwa Shehu Damina, condemned the incident, saying that it was uncalled for just as he wondered that it was not yet campaign period and this is happening.
“In a situation like this, violence cannot solve the problem, it will only aggravate it. All that is required is for us to sit down and dialogue in order to have a solution to the problem. It is simply a misunderstanding among members of the House,” he stated.
Recall that last Friday the Bauchi State House of Assembly, was engulfed by a leadership crisis following the demand by 22 members who passed a vote of no confidence on the Speaker and principal officers of the House for their ineptness.
The Speaker of the Assembly, Abubakar Suleiman, is also the Chairman, Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria is currently in Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage.
Suleiman recently defected from the All Progressives Congress, the party on which he was elected as lawmaker to the People’s Democratic Party and with his defection, the APC currently has 16 members while the PDP has 15.
Interestingly, the 22 members who passed the vote of no confidence on the Speaker and other principal officers, comprise of seven members of the PDP and 15 from the APC.
The Deputy Majority Leader of the Assembly, Baballe Dambam (APC) representing Dambam/Dagauda/Jalam Constituency, who led the 22 lawmakers declared that the leadership of the House has failed in its responsibility to the members and therefore called on the leadership to voluntarily resign from their various offices or be impeached any moment from now.
The leader of the 22 members, who addressed Journalists at the end of a meeting held at the Assembly complex, said: “After our meeting held today, Friday, 1st July 2022, 22 members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly resolved to pass vote of no confidence on the leadership of the House from today.”
“We consider that as it is today, there is no leadership in the State House of Assembly, I am among the leaders but we feel that it is the right time and we must do it. We have therefore passed a vote of no confidence on all the leaders of the Bauchi State House of Assembly.
“We are calling on the leaders of the Bauchi State House of Assembly to honorably tender their resignation letters to the Clerk of the Assembly. That will allow the Honorable House the opportunity to elect its leaders in order to forge ahead.”