Deputy Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, Chief Emeka Ihedioha has described the action of the security operatives which threw the National Assembly into mayhem today as part of democracy.
The police and officers of the Directorate of State Security (DSS) had tried to prevent speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal from entering the National Assembly premises to preside over the House of Representatives plenary, which he reconvened to deliberate on the extension of the state of emergency by President Goodluck Jonathan in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.
In the confusion that ensued, the security operatives threw canisters of teargas indiscriminately at the lawmakers who ran in panic to take covers, even as some lawmakers jumped the perimeter fence to gain entry into the premises while others tried to pull down the main gate into the premises.
Chief Ihedioha, who was apparently invited by the Presidency after the incidence, would not speak to newsmen who accosted him when he emerged from the office of Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo.
When he was pressed to say something, Ihedioha simply said: “it is democracy.”
The deputy speaker, who is still in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was said to have been allowed easy access into the National Assembly complex whereas the speaker, Tambuwal, who recently defected from PDP to opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) was molested, sparking off the crisis. [myad]
