The Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Kola Oluwole, on Thursday announced the indefinite shut down of the Assembly.
Oluwawole said at a press conference in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, that the decision followed Wednesday’s invasion of the Assembly complex by “strange policemen.”
According to him, the decision became necessary because two units of heavily armed riot-policemen stormed the premises without official request.
The Speaker accused members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Assembly of being behind the police deployment.
He said the police acted on a letter “forged” by the three APC members using the name of the Assembly Clerk, Mr. Tola Esan and addressed to the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Bello Ahmed, calling for deployment.
Oluwawole said: “This is strange in democracy, for lawmakers to wake up and see unauthorised police deployment in the legislative arm of government.
“On Wednesday, at about 9:00 p.m., police authority deployed two detachments of heavily armed policemen to the premises of the Assembly. This came to us as a shock because we are in a recess and such action was unwarranted.
“Before now, we had it on good authority that police were planning to provide cover for the three defecting lawmakers to perpetrate violence in the Assembly and cause confusion and also to endanger the lives of our staff.
“We have not recovered from the harassment and abduction of our members by police during the July 14 election. But let me say expressly that such strange police deployment was unsolicited, unwarranted and ultra vires.”
