Police fire teargas at Tambuwal, lawmakers ahead of key vote

Nigerian police fired teargas inside the parliament
complex on Thursday, apparently trying to block
opposition lawmakers, including the speaker of the
lower house, from entering the building for a key
security vote.
Members of the House of Representatives had been
scheduled to vote on a government request to extend
emergency rule in the northeast region hit hardest by
Boko Haram militants.
The opposition has said it was against the move, and
political tensions have been ratcheted up ahead of
elections scheduled for February.
Senate President David Mark, a ruling party stalwart,
ordered the immediate closure of both chambers
over the incident.
The focus of the police aggression appeared to be
lower house speaker Aminu Tambuwal, whose
defection to the opposition last month outraged the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The PDP has tried to remove Tambuwal from the
speaker’s chair and stripped him of his security
detail.
– Lawmakers scale fence –
Tambuwal arrived at parliament at about 10:00 am
(0900 GMT) before the vote on the state of
emergency extension, his spokesman Imam Imam
told AFP.
President Goodluck Jonathan has said the extension
is needed to sustain the military offensive against
Boko Haram.
Lawmakers at the National Assembly Thursday.
But the main opposition All Progressives Congress
(APC) has described the strategy as a complete
failure, noting the huge Islamist gains since
emergency rule was first imposed in May 2013.
Imam said Tambuwal was moving in a convoy with
more than 40 other lawmakers, which police
repeatedly tried to stop as they approached the main
gate of parliament.
The convoy pressed through several police
barricades before officers locked the gate that leads
into the parliament complex, he added.
Lawmakers began pushing aggressively on the bars
to force their way through, with police looking on
from the other side, footage on the private Channels
television station showed.
Several scaled the gate and then walked with
Tambuwal towards the legislative building, the
footage showed.
“As soon as we got (to parliament), they insisted he
will not enter the chamber,” Imam told AFP.
“It was in that midst of confusion that they now used
the tear gas on the speaker” and other lawmakers, he
added.
An AFP correspondent said the main lobby outside
the lower house chamber was filled with tear gas,
with bystanders choking as they tried to find their
way outside.
– Parliament suspended –
Senate president Mark described the chaos as “a very
unfortunate incident” and closed both chambers of
the National Assembly until Tuesday, meaning
Jonathan’s emergency rule extension will not be
approved this week.
Police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu told AFP that
police officers were not involved in the incident but
that claim was not consistent with witness reports
and video footage.
The PDP, which has controlled the government since
democracy was restored in 1999, has found itself in
uncharted waters in recent months following a wave
of lawmaker defections to the APC.
While the PDP currently holds fragile majorities in
both chambers, the situation has been in flux
throughout the year.
The defection of Tambuwal was seen as blow to
Jonathan, who had previously relied on a compliant
lower house.
The speaker had been mulling a possible bid for the
presidency on the APC ticket at next year’s elections
but declined earlier this week.
Human rights lawyer Jiti Ogunye said Thursday’s
fracas recalled the years after Nigeria’s
independence from Britain in 1960, when a divided
civilian government was ultimately overthrown by the
military.
“We are in a state of anarchy,” he said. “This is how
sad our democracy has turned.