Niger Assembly disrupted by youths for dropping Commissioner nominee

From Yakubu Mustapha Minna

The Niger State House of Assembly plenary session was yesterday disrupted for about 20 minutes by some angry youths who stormed the sitting in protest over the stepping down of the screening of a Commissioner nominee.
Earlier, the Speaker of the Assembly, Honorable Ahmed Marafa Guni read a letter from the Acting Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Muhammad Ketso, announcing the stepping down of the screening of the Commissioner nominee from Wushushi local government, Alhaji Isah Musa Kanko.
Consequently, shortly after reading the letter from the Acting Governor, when the Legislators had started the plenary, the youths numbering over 20 stormed the plenary demanding to know why their candidate was dropped. Security agents were able to send them out of the plenary.
According to the letter, as read by the speaker, there was no explanation given for the decision to step down the screening of the candidate.
“We want to know why Kanko was dropped. Tell us; let us know. We will not accept this. It is unfair,” the youths chanted.
The lawmakers, during the interruption, all remained silent; but were only seen moving about each other’s seat, making little discussions and consultations.
After that, the Speaker continued with the motion on ground without saying anything about the youths storming the plenary session of the house.
In a bid to end the session, the debate on ground was apparently referred to a Committee to deliberate on before moving for a two hour adjournment.
It could be recalled that since the submission of the list of the commissioner nominees to the Niger State House of Assembly and the commencement of the screening, it has been marred with protest from no fewer than five local governments – an indication that the state government has failed to carry along the people.