The Ekiti State House of Assembly has been shut indefinitely over alleged invasion by strange policemen.

The Speaker, Kola Oluwawole, announced this at a press conference in Ado Ekiti on Thursday.

He said the shutting down of the Assembly became necessary because two units of heavily armed riot-policemen stormed the premises on Wednesday without an official request.

When our correspondent visited the Assembly on Thursday, there was no policeman in sight.

Oluwawole, who addressed journalists in company with 17 other lawmakers, said members of the All Progressives Congress in the Assembly were the brains behind the alleged strange Police deployment.

He said the Police were acting on a letter forged by the three APC members using the name of the Clerk, Mr. Tola Esan, and addressed to the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Bello Ahmed, calling for deployment.

He said the letter and the request were “unwarranted.”

Recently, three PDP House members had defected to the APC. They are Gboyega Aribisogan, Sunday Akinniyi and Ebenezer Alagbada, who left the PDP after a disagreement with Governor Ayodele Fayose.

Oluwawole said the Assembly would remain shut until security of lives of lawmakers and staff of the hallowed chamber could be guaranteed.

The Speaker said the Assembly had petitioned the CP to raise allegation of forgery against Aribisogan, Akinniyi and Alagbada.

He recalled that the Clerk had, on July 25, written a similar letter dissociating himself from the letter purportedly written by him requesting Police cover at the Assembly.

He urged the Police authority to conduct unfettered investigations into the issue and bring the culprits to justice.

The Speaker 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 9pm, 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.

“As we speak, the lives of our people are no longer safe, because the Police and APC thugs have laid siege to Ekiti Assembly and under this circumstance, our staff are no longer safe and we declare indefinite closure of the Assembly pending the time security can be guaranteed.

“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,” he said.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Caleb Ikechukwu, could not be reached, as his phone was switched off.

The Punch