Speaker resigns as Kogi assembly crisis deepens

The crisis rocking the Kogi state house of assembly took a new turn on Thursday as Umar Imam, the speaker, resigned his position.

His resignation letter was read at plenary on Thursday.

Matthew Kolawole, majority leader of the house, was subsequently elected as the new speaker.

The speaker’s resignation is coming two days after hoodlums invaded the house, beating up lawmakers.

The invasion had forced the lawmakers to end their sitting abruptly, with some of them blaming it on Yahaya Bello, governor of the state.

He was accused of causing chaos ahead of the plot to remove the speaker, but Bello denied the allegation.

“We want to denounce insinuations that the governor is scheming for the impeachment of the speaker. The governor is not interested in instigating the impeachment of speaker,” he had said through Kingsley Fanwo, his spokesman.

“The members already passed a vote of confidence on the speaker and it is not the responsibility of the governor to install or remove speaker.”

Kogi assembly has been enmeshed in different crisis in the last two years.

Last year, the house of representative took over the legislative functions of the assembly, following a tussle for the speakership position between two factions of the assembly.

Imam had emerged after the dispute was resolved.