A member of the Gombe State House of Assembly shocked lawmakers when he grabbed the legislative chamber’s mace and fled during plenary on Thursday, May 24, 2018.
According to a report by Premium Times, Abdullahi Abubakar, who represents Akko West, seized the mace and disappeared after a failed attempt by some members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the House to impeach the Minority Leader, Mohammed Haruna, on Thursday.
Earlier in May, Haruna had condemned the conduct of APC ward congresses in the state, an action that made him unpopular among some members of the party. However, an attempt to impeach him on Thursday failed as four of the eight members in the House didn’t support the bid. This reportedly prompted Abubakar to snatch the mace, the House’s symbol of authority, with the help of Mohammed Bello (Gombe South) who allegedly held down the Sergeant-at-Arms.
Even though police officers tried to stop Abubakar at the gate of the Assembly complex, he escaped with some damage to his car and took the mace to an unknown location.
According to the Chairman of the House Committee on Information and Majority leader, Fabulous Amos, lawmakers reconvened on Thursday with a spare mace and resolved to suspend four members of the APC for four legislative days for their alleged involvement in the theft of the mace. The suspended members are Abubakar, Bello, Ibrahim Abdullahi and Walid Mohammed.
Theft of NASS mace
The incident in Gombe is similar to the invasion of the National Assembly complex on April 18, 2018, which witnessed the theft of the mace of the upper legislative chamber by unknown hoodlums who allegedly did so on behalf of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege who reportedly led them into the chamber just a week after he was suspended.
The mace was later recovered by the police on April 19 after it was found by a passer-by under the flyover before the City Gate in Abuja where the hoodlums abandoned it.
Credit: News agencies
