Lagos lawmakers have gone into an emergency meeting possibly due to massive protest on Wednesday by concerned Lagosians against alleged plans to impeach Governor Akinwunmi Ambode
Though agenda of the meeting was not known, sources close to the Assembly said it may not be unconnected with the issue of Ambode’s impeachment over which hundreds of his admirers registered their protest at the Assembly earlier.
The Assembly had adjourned sitting till next Monday but suddenly summoned members for an emergency meeting on Wednesday after the protest.
Usually, pressmen are not allowed into parliamentary meetings solely for the lawmakers.
However, anxious House correspondents hung around the Assembly’s premises for outcome of the meeting, which was still as at 7pm.
Feelers had it that the meeting was called to deliberate on the issue of Ambode, whom the House had ordered to appear before them on Monday to defend the infractions levelled against him or faced impeachment.
The Assembly had accused Ambode of alleged gross misconduct and spending money from the 2019 budget that had not yet been laid or approved by the House.
Speaker Mudashiru Obasa had told members who wished Ambode should be impeached to start collecting signatures in readiness to impeach the governor.
But hundreds of supporters loyal to Ambode stormed the Assembly to protest the planned impeachment on Wednesday’s morning.
The protesters, in their number marched to the Assembly and caused traffic gridlock.
The protesters carried placards, saying that any move to impeach Ambode would disrupt the coming election, adding that the governor should be allowed to complete his tenure.
The protesters said the governor did not deserve the treatment he was getting from the party, saying they should leave the governor alone.
The House of Assembly had moved
to impeach Ambode over what they called gross misconduct and spending
part of the 2019 budget that had not been presented to the Assembly for
approval.
They gave the governor one week to appear before the House to explain the infractions levelled against him.
The protesters, under the aegis of the Lagos People’s Assembly (LPA), said as a critical civil society stakeholder in the Lagos Project, they were gravely concerned with the unfolding political drama in the state which might degenerate to a logjam if not handled with the best of statesmanship kits.
“We are fully conscious of the historical truism that under a constitutional democracy, the executive and legislative arms of government must seamlessly work in harmony to deliver the dividends of democracy for the people.
‘’Both arms are equal partners in the business of constitutional, democratic governance.’’
