 So, watching plus politics, now the crisis brewing in the Plateau State House of Assembly has taken a new turn as the embattled speaker, Abouk Ayuba, and some of his loyalists have been arrested within the vicinity of the State Assembly in Jost. Now, the State Police Commissioner, Edward Ibuqa, and some key officials of the different security outfits in the state ushered him into a Hilux fan at about 3.15pm after laying siege at the State Assembly since dawn. Abouk was taken away through the back gate of the State Assembly shortly after security agents bombarded the peaceful protesters and journalists with tear gas and sporadic gunshots to disperse them. Well, joining us to break this down is Peter Giendeng. He is a Minority Leader at Plateau State House of Assembly. Thank you very much, Honourable, for joining us. You're welcome. Thank you. Great. Take us through what exactly happened the other day at the premises of the House of Assembly. We saw videos, we saw John Liss asking, even the Speaker, what exactly was the issue between him and the police if he was being arrested, and he wasn't able to say anything. He was not arrested. The IPI was already there. What happened was, yesterday in the morning, early hours in the morning, we entered the House of Assembly because there was a duty pedigree there, so we could not officially assess the chambers due to the problem of the alleged illegal impeachment of our Speaker. So we decided that the only way we can air our mind will stand on the part of the law is to assess the chambers and do a normal legislative function by sitting. So we assessed the chambers at early hours at 4 a.m., we waited until 10 a.m. then we started our sitting. So while we were doing that, some members, the members that allegedly removed the speaker claim that removed the speaker came, break the doors and assess the chambers and they started making trouble. On this note, the Commissioner of Police came, there were tear gas, even within the chambers. We all sat there, we said we are ready to die, we won't leave that place until that form of illegality is stopped. So we remained there until around 4 a.m., the Commissioner of Police stayed there with us and when the governor called that we should dialogue, we said, yes, this is what we want, we want our voice we had and our demand we met that our speaker is not removed. He remained our speaker. The other person that is claiming that he is now the speaker, we said he is not our speaker because he was not elected. Let's backtrack, Mr. Gang-Dang, let's backtrack to what really transpired before all of this. What led to the splits? Because you obviously are on the side of the original speaker, the first speaker before the whole house split into two. There is no fake or fake. No, no, no, no, I know this, I know this, but I am asking what exactly led to the split because of course the other person came and said that well, they do have a quorum and so they are going to suspend the speaker but what led to this, what led to the disagreement in the first place? Let's educate our viewers. There have been issues, you know, the last time the House of Assembly gave the governor two weeks or two months to meet the demands of the two people about the killings in the state is part of the resolution we made, we made about 10 resolutions and the governor have made about nine of them, only one that is yet to be met, but that did not go well with the governor on those issues we made. But the major problem was the issue of autonomy. We insisted that we must be autonomous and it did not go well, it was a battle between all the lawmakers, the 24 of us and the executive. So along the line there was no way out and we were given a partial autonomy that resulted into the feelings that the governor felt that the speaker is not respecting me enough. There are other issues, the issue of... And when you said partial autonomy, what exactly are you referring to? What is the partial part of the autonomy? It's not full autonomy, because we also have been given all that we needed to start on our own. But there was a kind of a political solution to it because there were some aspect of the percentage that we also get that was given to the judiciary because there could not be a salary. We agreed on that with the understanding that by the end of this year, when they bring their budget, we're going to adjust so that everybody will be autonomous. Those are part of the things that we're still working on and they exactly feel they want to take it all in their own way. So we have been disagreeing on that, that we want these hallowed chambers to completely stand on its own. And thank God the president governor was the former speaker of the status of assembly and he has worked, he knows everything about legislative function. So why would he want to frustrate an institution that is building to where he is today? So you're implying, Mr. Geng Deng, that those who try to impeach the speaker are those who are in support of the governor or those who feel that the speaker is disrespecting the governor. Is that right? The speaker is doing his job as the speaker. He's representing an institution. And those that perpetrated that act are people that want, they are looking for favor from the government. And we've said it, people are elected us from different constituencies. We have about 24 constituencies in the status of assembly. So why won't we stand for the interests of the people that are elected us? We can pay lip service to the government. All we need is the things that are needed to be done as the executive analysis. Mr. Geng Deng, are you still there? Should be done in the proper, you know. Yes. Go ahead. We lost your connection for a second there. Yeah. As I said, all we need from the status of assembly is to be allowed to be autonomous. I think. We should do things. So all of these are things that are. So I'm more interested in the autonomous part. Yes, of course, everybody is pushing for autonomy, both at the state and local government levels, especially for local government autonomy, judiciary, and legislative autonomy. But is this really just a fight about autonomy, monies, or is this a political fight of sorts? Because I'm looking at the House of Assembly in Platteau state and the different people who are members of the assembly, I don't know better ways of going about this than splitting the assembly into two and having the police come in to take some people away, even though you have said that it was not an arrest, but they were being whisked away. The issue of autonomy is not all about money. It's about the freedom of the legislative institution. This we know. We need to be free to carry our freedom to carry out our functions as legislators without any interference from the executive. But as you know, the executive will always want to have their way. There are resolutions that the government will want us to give there. Apologies. The internet connection with Mr. Gengdeng is a bit shaky, but hopefully we can get him back. Mr. Gengdeng, can you hear me? Let's see if we can quickly wrap this up. Yes, we know that your connection is a bit poor, but let's quickly wrap this up. Why does this go from here? Because we're yet to understand the whereabouts of these men who were whisked away by security operatives. Are they safe? Are they sound in their homes? And how is the assembly going to address this situation? If you're saying that you do not want the executive to interfere, is this the best way to deal with the issues? The best way to deal with the issue is for the executive to stay clear of the institution that was or not by law. These are issues. One, our demands are this, that we should be allowed to deal with our problem within ourselves. The 24 of us should go back to that timbers. If they want to impeach a speaker, they should do it in a legitimate way. Not to go in the night. Six, seven members should go and impeach a speaker against the total majority of 16 members. How possible is that? So all we want is we should be allowed to access the assembly, the 24 of us. Let us sit down. If they have the total majority of the impeach a speaker, they should go ahead and do that. But if they don't have a speaker, they may not have a speaker and you will lead us to the end of our tenure. All right. Well, thank you very much. Peter Ibrahim Gangden is the minority leader of the Plateau State House of Assembly. We're hoping that this issue is resolved sometime soon and for the best in the best interest of Plateau people. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you all for staying with us. We'll take a short break now to listen to a report on the ensuing crisis in Plateau State and memory 10. I will give you my take legislative activity started at the Plateau House of Assembly with eight members sitting and suspending the speaker. Right Honourable Nuhu Ayuba or eight are members of the embattled speakers or progressive Congress. We are 24. We are supposed to have a minimum of 16 members that will be there to sign and affirm the impeachment of a speaker. The greatest dismay were in the House of Assembly today very early in the morning. We got an information that it was an attempt to impeach a speaker. We went and we found only seven people. Myself became the eighth person before the rest came. This caused an uproar as the nine members of the People's Democratic Party in the House said they did not form a call room. Security officers later took over the House. The faction that carried out the impeachment later elected Honourable Yacobo Sander as speaker and went to the Plateau State Government House. The members of the State House of Assembly bought the PDP and the empty seat where presence on the floor of the House of Assembly. If you want me to mention names, I will mention those names. And it is on tape that they were there. So we have 16 members signed. As a gatekeeper of the Executive Amp, I apparently lead you to his ascellancy formality and formal present of something so that other details you get to hear from him. In a twist later in the day, the impeached speaker presided over a sitting of 11 other members of the House. My motion is encapsulated with two different attempts. The first is a motion of suspension on some of the members of this party chamber that have been found in some levels of gross misconduct and we dare to address our great institution, the man who signed it. They announced the impeachment of new speaker Honourable Sander and five other lawmakers for gross misconduct. They also passed a vote of confidence on right Honourable Ayuba. Let me have a look for this concept also. It is now a divided House with 12 lawmakers recognising Honourable Ayuba as speaker and the other 12 recognising Honourable Sander. It's time for my take. Now I'll start this rendition today with a quote by Barbara Taylor, right Ford, which says, the past was always there, but it had to be placed in perspective. The truth is many Nigerians are still haunted by the past tragic events like the Nigerian civil war, the various military coups and the alleged killings of N-Sars protesters in 2020. Terrorism, the likes of the kidnappings and others have left unhealed wounds in some of the citizens of this land. The Vice President advising young people to move forward and get the issues of the past is applaudable, but it's not as easy as it is stated. My advice to the government is to pursue peace with the various warring factions, even before Nigerians sustained wounds that would be forever etched in their hearts. And in the case of the crisis taking place in Platterhouse of Assembly, I ask why? Why are leaders acting like this? How will they lead us if they can't even properly maintain a good arrangement? A popular saying says, when there is peace, there is progress. Platterhouse of State has been plagued with insecurity issues over the last few years. How will the state move forward if even the leaders themselves are not level-headed? It bids me, doesn't it? But our leaders need to do better so that our country can go forward. And that's my take. I'm Mary Anna Cohn. Have a good evening.