Heavily-armed security operatives on Tuesday chased the Clerk of the Benue State House of Assembly, Dr. Toryese Angenor, and other officials of the Assembly out of office.
Angenor told journalists in Makurdi that he, alongside others, was ordered out of office by security men, two hours after he resumed for duty on Tuesday.
The clerk said, “As l talk to you now, the police officers are still there and you can’t see any (members of) staff in the Assembly complex because l was chased out of my office.
“They told us that the Commissioner of Police had ordered them to tell us to leave the complex. No reason was given and no definite time was given to us to come back.
“The implication of this is that we were not allowed to do our job and that is going to impede the work of the legislature and it is going to affect all the people of Benue.
“We are calling on the Commander-in-Chief to direct the IGP to tell the Commissioner of Police, Benue State Command to withdraw his men from the premises of the Benue State House of Assembly so that staff can do their work unhindered.”
The security adviser to the governor, Col. Paul Hemba, corroborated the account given by the clerk.
He said, “I got the information about the chasing away of civil servants and l called the Commissioner of Police. I spoke with him a while ago and he confirmed it.
When one of our correspondents visited the Assembly complex located behind Government House, stern-looking policemen were seen, stationed at the road leading to the Assembly complex.
Efforts to get the new Commissioner of Police, Gwana Bensan, to react to the development were not successful as his phone did not go through.
Meanwhile, a former Senate President, David Mark, and a former governor of Kano State, Rabi’u Kwankwaso, have faulted the move by minority members of the Benue State House of Assembly to remove Governor Samuel Ortom from office.
The lawmakers’ move was equally condemned by senators Ben Murray-Bruce and Shehu Sani.
