By Adedayo Ogunleye, Abuja

Armed policemen this morning stormed the National Assembly to prevent members of the House of Representatives from sitting in an emergency plenary session called by the Speaker of the House Aminu Tambuwal.

The policemen had attempted to prevent the lawmakers, including the Speaker, from entering the National Assembly complex.

However, Speaker Tambuwal managed to smuggle himself into the premises with the help of some of his colleagues.

Subsequently, other members of the House also found their way into the assembly grounds, with many of them scaling the fence.

However, as the lawmakers attempted to enter the chambers for the commencement of the plenary session, the armed policemen fired teargas canisters into the lobby, forcing the legislators to flee and abandon the planned emergency session.

The incident also forced the session of the Senate to come to an abrupt end as senators trooped of the Red Chamber to find out the cause of the commotion in the complex.

Initial reports speculated that Tambuwal had been arrested by policemen but our correspondent confirmed that he was in his office at the time of filing this report.

The emergency plenary session was convened by the Speaker in order to discuss President Goodluck Jonathan’s extension of the State of Emergency imposed on Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states.

The Senate’s closed-door deliberation on said letter had spanned two days now with no concrete resolution emerging from the talks. Senate President David Mark had declined to speak on resolutions arrived at behind closed doors.

The Senate president has shut down the National Assembly until next tuesday