A member of the House of Representatives from Oyo State, Adedeji Stanley Olajide, on Friday threw caution to the wind and assumed the status of a bouncer chasing journalists out of a public hearing at the National Assembly.
The lawmaker, who represents Ibadan South West/North West Federal Constituency, displayed that some described as the “garage mentality” on Friday at the public hearing organised by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on COVID-19 on the need to investigate medical research in the fight against the virus and other diseases in Nigeria.
The event was attended by the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire; Minister of State for Health, Senator Olorunimbe Mamora; Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu; and other heads of agencies and parastatals in the Ministry of Health.
While the hearing was ongoing, a member of the ad hoc committee observed that the meeting room was becoming crowded and sought the directive of the Chairman of the committee, Hon. Haruna Mshelia (APC, Borno), to control the number of people at the venue.
Consequently, Mshelia instructed that no one should be allowed into the hall again so that social distancing could be maintained.
He said: “Please, we have the Minister of Health with us here and we have to adhere strictly to the Presidential Task Force social distancing recommendations.
“So, Sergeant at Arms, please open the doors, but don’t allow any more people to come in.
“Let’s just maintain the number we have in the hall.
“Honourable Colleague, your observation is sustained.”
But instead of preventing more people from entering the hall, Olajide arrogated to himself the function of a security man and started walking out guests and journalists from the hall.
Olajide ordered the Sergeant at Arms to drag out any guest or journalist who dares to question his unparliamentary and hostile behaviour towards them.
His actions led to a protest by the journalists at the venue, who all walked out of the investigation and threatened to leave.
Following this, two members of the ad hoc committee, led by Hon. Aniekan Umannah from Akwa Ibom State, intervened and pleaded with the journalists to forget about the embarrassment and continue with the coverage of the investigation.
Most of the journalists refused to return to the hall.
It is on record that Olajide, a first time lawmaker in the House, has never sponsored any bill in the last one year.
Neither has he sponsored a single motion on the floor of the House.
This is not the first time Olajide will harass people in the premises of the National Assembly.
At the last meeting of the committee, he was seen harassing people for not wearing face mask when he had none on him, with many of the lawmakers also doing same.
