Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has said the upper chamber would set up an ad-hoc committee to work with their House of Representatives counterparts; set up to investigate the crisis in Edo State House of Assembly.
He said this at yesterday’s plenary, in response to a motion raised by Senator Micheal Opeyemi Bamidele.
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives set up a 13-member ad-hoc committee to investigate the crisis in the state assembly.
Section 11 (4) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, provides that the National Assembly makes laws for the peace, order and good government of a state, at any time when a House of Assembly in a state is unable to perform its functions.
Senator Bamidele stressed the need for urgent intervention and urged Senate to set up and ad hoc committee “that will look into this issue and determine what the next line of action should be.
“Our constitution is clear on what we need to do.
“I am not even calling that we invoke a section of the constitution at this point but, there is need to investigate what has happened in the state and take a decision; to send as a message.”
In his response, the senate president agreed that an ad-hoc committee be set up to work with that of the House of Representatives, rather than createa new committee to commence a separate investigation.
“One thing to do is to set up a committee and urge the committee to work with the House so we can bring the crisis to an end.
“The intervention is to the extent that when the state of the assembly is unable to perform its functions.
“We haven’t had any hard facts. All we have is information.
“The committee will come back and tell us whether it warrants section 11 or not,” the senate president said.