Impeached Benue speaker, two others to face contempt charge

In Makurdi, the 22 members of the Benue State House of Assembly loyal to Ortom Tuesday turned the fight against the embattled Ikyange as they served him, Okefe and Adanyi contempt proceedings.

The order to serve the lawmakers, who are currently on suspension, the contempt proceedings was given by the state Chief Judge, Justice Adam Onum.

The trio would appear in court to explain why an order for committal to prison should not be made against them for disobeying the injunction earlier issued by the court.

The lawmakers and five others had Monday taken control of the assembly with the aid of the police to commence impeachment proceedings against the governor.

The former speaker, deputy speaker and majority leader were last Friday restrained by the Makurdi High Court presided over by Justice Onum from parading themselves in the capacities they previously operated pending the determination of the substantive suit filed against them.

Also included in the injunction were the Nigeria Police, Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) who are by the court injunction order advised to steer clear from the assembly complex and desist from barricading the state assembly complex to prevent members from carrying out their legitimate function.

Justice Onum had issued an interim injunction restraining Ikyange from parading himself as the speaker of the House.

The interim injunction order was issued following an application brought before the court by the 22 members of the House.

Justice Onum also warned Ikyange to desist from parading himself as the speaker pending the determination of the substantive suit.

He also warned the security agencies to steer clear from the assembly complex and desist from barricading the state assembly complex to prevent members from carrying out their legitimate function.

Tuesday morning, however, heavily armed security operatives comprising the police and DSS ordered the Clerk of the House, Dr. Toryese Angenor, and other staff out of their offices.

The clerk disclosed that shortly after he resumed work with other staff, the security operatives asked them to move out of their offices while the assembly was sealed off.

According to Angenor, the security men told them that the order was from the state Commissioner of Police.

He said: “As I talk to you now, the police officers are still there and you can’t see any staff at the assembly complex because I was chased out of my office. They told us that the commissioner of police has ordered them to let us 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 is going to affect the people of the state.”

Also, the Security Adviser to the state governor, Colonel Paul Hemba (rtd), confirmed that the police actually went to the assembly and chased away workers.