A meeting by two Nasarawa House of Assembly factions over the parliament’s speakership tussle has deadlocked.
The meeting between the two factions of Daniel Ogazi and Ibrahim Balarabe, which lasted for more than three hours at the Nasarawa Government Lodge in Abuja on Wednesday, ended in a deadlock.
The lawmakers left the venue disappointed even while Governor Abdullahi Sule awaited their resolution.
The two factional speakers declined to speak to journalists after the meeting.
However, Mr Ogazi disclosed via SMS that the meeting ended in a deadlock and expressed hope that they would meet again, while all efforts to hear from Mr Balarabe were unfruitful.
Last week, the governor met with the 24 lawmakers and pleaded with them to resolve the leadership impasse and report back to him in two days.
On June 8, the leadership crisis rocking the state assembly took another dimension as the 13 factional members during plenary passed a resolution suspending the 10 other factional members.
As a result of having two factional speakers of the state assembly, the inauguration of the seventh assembly was postponed. After the postponement, a leadership crisis erupted where two speakers emerged, with Messrs Balarabe and Ogazi leading different groups.
While Mr Balarabe was elected at a plenary session in the Ministry for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs by 11 out of 24 members, Mr Ogazi was elected by 13 out of 24 members at another sitting in the assembly complex.
As the crisis escalated, the APC chairman in Nasarawa, John Mamman, on June 9 endorsed Mr Balarabe as the speaker.
Not relenting, on June 10, Mr Ogazi went to the Lafia Division of the Federal High Court to stop Mr Balarabe and Jacob Kudu from parading themselves as the speaker and deputy speaker of the state assembly.
(NAN)
