Anambra House of Assembly crisis:Factional writes IGP to unseal Assembly complex

Mr. Ikem Uzoezie, a factional Speaker of Anambra House of Assembly, has urged the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to direct the Police Command in Anambra to unseal the Assembly complex.

Ikem made the call in an interview with our reporters on Monday in Awka.

He said there was no time its leadership applied for sealing off of the complex and described it as illegal and unconstitutional.

It will be recalled that some members of the Anambra House of Assembly had purportedly impeached the speaker, Mrs Rita Maduagwu on November 13, and elected Uzozie as the new Speaker.

Policemen were deployed to the complex by the command on November 15 to forestall breakdown of law and order by the factions after it issued a statement sealing off the premises and ordered workers to vacate.

Uzoezie said what happened was mere internal business of the House where it changed its Speaker which did not warrant police occupation of the Assembly complex.

“The occupation of Anambra House of Assembly is needless, there is no anarchy.

“It smacks rascality and dictatorial tendency by the police in Anambra, they have no business sealing off the House of Assembly and ordering our staff to report to the Head of Service (HoS) office.

“It is unfortunate that the police have taken over our job and occupied the complex; Anambra is not in anarchy to warrant this act.

“The commissioner of police should know that his men are on illegal assignment,’’ he said.

Uzoezie said the legislature was the first arm of government which defined democracy, adding that a clampdown on it was an attack on democracy.

He said the Anambra people were the ultimate victims of the injustice being done to the house as that was the only arm of government where everyone had their say.

He said the executive arm of government should be worried that the parliament which gave it legitimacy as a democratic government had been shut down.

“The idea is that the executive don’t want us to function so that they can continue their lawlessness.

“The struggle is to liberate the legislature to serve as the conscience of the people.

“Anambra people are the ultimate victims of what is going on because they elected us and are the beneficiary of the services we render, we refuse to be an appendage of the executive,’’ he said.

He said the Inspector-General of Police should act on the letter that he had written to him and order for immediate vacation of police from the complex to enable members return to their normal business.

NAN