THE Department of State Services (DSS) have barricaded the entrance to the National Assembly complex, refusing entrance to lawmakers and other staff members.
However, according to a Peoples Democratic Party senator, Ben Murray-Bruce, some lawmakers belonging to the ruling All Progressives Congress are being allowed in through another gate.
Murray-Bruce said this during a phone interview with Channels Television, saying that the DSS personnel were looking through a list and allowing only those whose names are in the list to enter the premises.
Channels Television later reported that the lawmakers who were earlier refused entry has been allowed to enter the assembly complex, but it was not clear whether they were allowed beyond the first gate to gain access into the chambers.
Journalists and members of staff of the National Assembly remain barred from entering the premises.
There are speculations that the move by the DSS is part of the ploy by the APC to impeach Saraki following his defection.
This is coming ahead of an emergency meeting of the leadership of the Upper and Lower chambers of the National Assembly, convened by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, who recently defected from the APC to the PDP.
The meeting which was expected to hold on Tuesday will be the first meeting since the National Assembly went on recess two weeks ago, to reconvene by September. But there have been calls from several stakeholders for Saraki to reconvene the senate.
Ita Enang, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters (Senate), had told newsmen that the senate ought to reconvene in order to avoid a shutdown of government.
“We are still appealing to the national assembly to reconvene,” Enang said. “You remember that we passed the budget with understanding that the greater amount of it would be gotten by foreign loans. Although this was approved, amount to be gotten was not approved.
“The Fiscal Responsibility Act requires that the president should specifically state the amount the government want to get from foreign loans and present it before the national assembly.
“That letter has been presented to the national assembly and the national assembly has to pass that amount before the money could be obtained from foreign financing institutions. This is what we are asking and if it doesn’t happen in the next few months, we may have a complete government shutdown.”
“What I want to do personally is to call on the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to reconvene the Senate because we have critical matters of urgent national importance before the National Assembly. His closure of the National Assembly that day was unbelievable. I was shocked by the way he acted,” Ndume said during an interview with Channels Television.
Similarly, a Katsina State senator, Abu Ibrahim, had urged Saraki to resign his office as Senate President in order for peace to reign.
“Let him (Saraki) be gentleman enough and resign as Senate President. If he doesn’t we will never have peace in that Senate because it is absolutely clear that APC has majority to produce the leadership.”