The president of Nigeria' s Senate has suspended
legislative proceedings in the National Assembly
until Tuesday following a scuffle between
parliamentarians and police.
David Mark announced the closure on
Thursday after police fired tear gas inside the
parliament building .
The target of the attack seemed to be Aminu
Tambuwal , speaker of the House of
Representatives , who defected to the opposition
last month .
Tambuwal said police had prevented him from
entering the building, but a police spokesman told
Al Jazeera the speaker and his entourage had
been behaving in a disorderly manner by breaking
through barriers and assaulting police officers on
duty .
" Following an intelligence report of a likely
invasion of the House of Representatives by
hoodlums and thugs, the Nigeria Police Force
promptly deployed its personnel to the premises to
prevent a breakdown of law and order ," a police
statement said .
The statement said Tambuwal " arrived the venue
with a motley crowd, who broke the cordon,
assaulted the police and evaded due process and
the police had the duty to restore order and
normalcy , using lawful means ".
Calls for impeachment
Despite the tear gas , some politicians forced their
way inside with members of parliament resorting
to scaling parliament' s gate to gain access .
Some opposition members loudly demanded the
impeachment of President Goodluck Jonathan .
Al Jazeera 's Rawya Rageh , reporting from Abuja ,
said the incident was likely to inflame tensions
between the opposition and the ruling party led by
Jonathan in the run-up to next year ' s election .
" The opposition has already accused the ruling
party of 'putting the nation' s security forces in its
pocket' after police stripped Tambuwal of his
security detail following his defection to the
opposition side ," she said .
The parliament session had been convened to
discuss Jonathan 's request to extend emergency
rule in the country ' s northeast , where Boko Haram
operates. The armed group says it is fighting
Western influence and wants to form an Islamic
state there .
Jonathan asked parliamentarians on Tuesday to
approve the extension of emergency rule in three
states : Adamawa, Borno and Yobe . He said the
move was needed to sustain the pressure against
Boko Haram .
A vote was eventually not taken on Thursday and
the decision came in a closed -door session on
account of the decision to close the National
Assembly.
Emergency rule criticised
Opposition members in both chambers of
parliament have described the state of emergency
as a failure , with Boko Haram making massive
gains since May last year .
" Emergency rule is over as far as we are
concerned ," Zakaria Mohammed , the House of
Representatives spokesperson , was quoted by AFP
news agency as saying .
He said Jonathan needs approval from both
chambers to secure an extension and that
members of the lower house resolved that the
extension was not merited .
" We have asked the president to rely on Section 8
of the Armed Forces Act which empowers him to
deploy the military to trouble spots in the
country , " Mohammed said .
" If we have adopted a particular style and it' s not
yielding the desired results, we should be able to
change course . "
Experts have questioned the usefulness of
Jonathan 's emergency decree , and the additional
powers given to the military to carry out its 18 -
month -long offensive have never been spelt out .
The military was operating in all three affected
states before the May 2013 declaration , which
many saw as an attempt by Jonathan to
underscore the severity of the Boko Haram
conflict.
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