Following the fire tragedy that damaged their legislative chamber, the Kogi State House of Assembly is not in the best of circumstances.
Since then, the fire event has presented the state legislature with a difficulty regarding the plenary location.
The members now rely on a temporary system to keep the House's work moving.
The burning of the House's plenary room has given parliamentarians a constitutional problem, according to Deputy Speaker of the House Alfa Momoh Rabiu.
In spite of the "hitches, hiccups, and inconveniences" that came with moving House business from the state assembly facility to another location, he emphasised that it was a challenging task for the members to complete.
“To keep the house business going, the state was forced to put up a makeshift arrangement for the lawmakers to function till repair work is effected on the burnt chamber.
“We received Governor Yahaya Bello in the makeshift place at the Speaker’s lodge in Lokoja, where he delivered his 2023 budget presentation to the lawmakers.”
Hon. Rabiu added, “If we have to wait, it will take us months because the money for the rehabilitation of the burnt chamber is not available at the moment, as it has to be budgeted for. And that will keep us out of our constitutional role for months.”
Until the Speaker’s lodge was restructured temporarily for their plenary session, the state legislators were holding their plenary at Reverton Hotel in Lokoja.
Notable issues like the controversial BUA land deal with the state government and Obajana cement tax evasion crises were handled from their base then at Reverton Hotel.
Thereafter, the lawmakers moved over to the Speaker’s lodge where Governor Yahaya Bello presented his 2023 appropriative bill to the House for consideration.
According to Yahaya Bello, “for the first time since I started presenting budgets to this House in 2016, I am doing so outside the purpose-built facilities of the Kogi State House of Assembly.
“As the whole world knows, your chambers at the House of Assembly Complex which this administration reconstructed and furnished at great cost lie in ruins.
“Over a month after the incident, we are still working to unravel the origin of that fire which is as mysterious as it is suspicious,” Bello said.
Governor Bello vowed to fish out the hoodlums behind the ugly incident that has resulted in a lack of a plenary venue for the lawmakers, adding “until the cause is known and culprits apprehended, we shall neither act rashly nor speculate wildly.”
The governor assured the lawmakers that the sad incident would soon be a thing of the past as he was making efforts to ensure the burnt chamber is repaired to ease their deliberations at plenary.
“Let me make an undertaking that your destroyed chambers will be built back better and that you will soon be able to sit there again to discharge your duties,” Bello assured.
According to the Speaker of Kogi State House of Assembly, Mathew Kolawole, the challenge posed by the unexpected fire would be overcome as the lawmakers have moved on with a makeshift arrangement to keep the business of the House in progress.
The Speaker who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Femi Odugbemi, said the lawmakers did not allow the fire incident to overwhelm them and impede their legislative duties.
Equally, the state commissioner of Information, Evangelist Kingsley Fanwo, said the state government is committed to renovating the burnt Assembly Complex quickly.
“At the moment, we are looking at the funding; and we have also been looking at the cost. It is our utmost desire to see them back at their chambers where they will find it more convenient to legislate for the good of our dear state.
Comrade Hamza Aliyu, the CEO of Initiative for GrassRoot Advancement (IGRA), said the resources invested in the rehabilitation of the Speaker’s lodge to hold the plenary of the state legislators temporarily would have been used for the renovation of the burnt chamber of the House of Assembly.
Comrade Aliyu stated that the Speaker’s lodge lacks the necessary space for legislative business.