During a press conference in Abuja on Saturday, the representative of Nasarawa West in the previous National Assembly election expressed his plea for Governor Abdullahi Sule’s intervention in the ongoing crisis within the State House of Assembly.
According to a report by The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) dated June 8, the state assembly’s leadership crisis escalated as two factions emerged, each supporting a different speaker – Ibrahim Balarabe and Daniel Ogazi.
Furthermore, during the plenary, 13 members from one faction passed a resolution to suspend 10 members from the opposing faction.
Expressing concern over the situation, Wakili emphasized that having two factional speakers in the House of Assembly was undemocratic.
Wakili said: “Members of the state house of assembly were elected but Nasarawa state is the only state that its legislators cannot sit and legislate.
“This is quite unfortunate. We are calling on the government of the state to hasten efforts to do something possible to salvage the crisis in the interest of the people of the state.
“The government should quickly address the issue and give legislators the freehand to do their legislative duties”, he said.
The party stalwart expressed strong dissatisfaction with the selective payment of June salaries to only the members of the Balarabe faction while neglecting those belonging to Ogazi’s faction. He emphasized that receiving salaries was a fundamental right of all the elected members in the house, irrespective of their faction.
“They have been duly elected as members of the House of Assembly. It is their entitlement and legitimate right to be paid their salaries.
“Why would the government pay a faction and leave out the other, that is unconstitutional,” he said.
He urged all stakeholders in the state to collaborate and work together to foster the necessary progress and development within the region.
