The Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Aliyu Yusuf, has warned that the current lawmakers will not sit idly by and allow any political officeholder or individual to ridicule the Assembly as an institution.
Aliyu made this statement on Wednesday while responding to questions from Assembly correspondents. This followed the appearance of the beleaguered Coordinator of the Kogi State Social Investment Programme Agency (KOSSIPA), Hajiya Aishat Oyiza Omade, who finally honored the Assembly’s invitation after several months of defiance.
Aliyu emphasized that the Assembly, under his leadership, will not be subjected to ridicule. He added that the current Eighth Assembly is committed to protecting the legislative branch of government without fear or favor.
“She was not even qualified to appear before all of us. It must be a serious issue before such can happen. By the report we received from the committee, she seems not be available after several invitations. The report was brought to the house and the lawmakers have to come together in protecting the committee by compelling her to come.
“The objective of our on pronouncement on Tuesday was achieved. Any officer irrespective of the office you are occupying in Kogi State can be invited. She has come and we have admonished her to always work in accordance to the law.
” By extension, we have admonished other office holders to be wary of the law. Any position that they find themselves is guided by rules and this must be obeyed. We didn’t give her much attention that is why the house out of it magnanimity referred her back to the committee she failed to honour before now.
“She can not be bigger than the committee. What we have achieved is to allow them take charge of what they want her to do. Let it be on record that there is no petition against her or infractions committed before now.
“The thing is that, she failed to honour invitations of committee that oversees her agency. We have compelled her to come. This will send signal to others that no body is above this institution called Kogi State House of Assembly”.
He maintained that the committee has the legislative duties backed by law to carry out their oversight function for the purpose of good governance in Kogi State.
The number three citizen of Kogi State dismissed public insinuation that the house has been compromised to wade the big stick against the KOSSIPA boss.
According to him “Nothing has exchanged hand. If we don’t want to be serious about this, we won’t come to the plenary and discuss. We are very serious about it. The essence is to let them know that we are not rubber stamp. If we need explanation from the Governor, we will write him to come.
“If she had failed to appear today, the world will see what would have happened. I don’t want to be one person that will wade any provision of the constitution to any officer in the State. We must do right thing by obeying the constitution governing us. We where the one that screened her here. So, why is she evading the house invitation?
The lawmaker had on Tuesday threatened to issue a bench warrant of arrest against Omade if she failed to appear before the house on 7th May, 2025.
Omade was accused of failing to appear before the house adhoc standing committee on special duties, legislative compliance, government house administration and Governor office headed by the majority leader of the house Hon . Suleiman Abdulrazak member representing Okene 1.
READ MORE FROM: NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
and then