Features
Reps adjourn sitting over Olatoye’s death
The House of Representatives adjourned plenary on Tuesday in less than 20 minutes after resumption from the general election break.
The lawmakers were forced to adjourn due to the death of Temitope Olatoye Sugar, who was killed during the Saturday, 9th March gubernatorial election in Oyo State.
This is as Speaker Yakubu Dogara regretted that Nigeria is yet to move away from politically motivated killings.
The serving lawmaker represented Lagelu/Akiyele Fededal constituency and was Chairman, Committee on Urban Development and Regional Planning before his death.
Dogara also announced the death of a former member, Bethel Amadi, who also died during the break.
Amadi was former President of the Pan African Parliament between 2012 and 2015.
The Speaker, who sauntered into the chamber at about 11.35am exchanged greetings and banters with his colleagues by the aisle before assuming his seat.
After the opening prayers, he announced his approval of the last votes and proceedings after which he broke the news of the death of Olatoye and Amadi.
He called for prayers for the repose of the souls of the departed which was said by the Chief Whip, Hassan Doguwa and Tobi Okechukwu.
The Speaker, who described the two as adjourned plenary immediately after the prayers in honour of the departed.
Speaking with journalist after the plenary Dogara condemned the killings across the country adding that Nigeria at this stage of democracy should not experience killings during elections.
He said: “It is unfortunate that we lost our colleague and many other Nigerian during the elections due to electoral violence. This is so unfortunate for us as a nation and even for our democracy.”
“We need to move away from this kind of experiences to a better place as a nation, it is not helping our democracy”, he added