Members of the Jigawa State House of Assembly, on Tuesday broke the mace of the assembly following a rowdy session over the amendment of the House Standing Rule (HSR).
Tension in the assembly had heightened in the past two months as agitation among members peaked over a plan to return a former Speaker, Idris Garba alias Kareka, to office.
In January, 2017, Garba was impeached as the speaker of the assembly after he was accused of high-handedness and arrogating too much power to himself, as a result of which the present Speaker, Isa Idris Gwaram, took over.
Trouble started at yesterday’s sitting after some members raised observation over a plan to amend the HSR as contained in the order of the day, which stipulated that any principal officer of the assembly that was removed from his position through impeachment, would be barred by law from re-contesting for any office under the leadership of the assembly.
It was gathered that the members opposing the proposed amendment went after the mace where the sergeant at arm attempted to stop them and in the process the mace got broken into three pieces.
It was also gathered that Abdulraham Alkasim (Yankwashe Constituency) led the group opposing the proposed amendment after being the first to raise observation soon after the copy of the order of the day was made available to him.
The Jigawa assembly was clearly divided into two, with those supporting the return of the former speaker and those opposing the amendment of the rule that would give him a leeway.
The rowdy session compelled the speaker to adjourn the sitting of the assembly to next week, Thursday.
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