Enugu State governor-elect, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has called on the two factions of the state assembly to sheath their swords and return to status quo for the amicable resolution of the contending issues.

It is reported that the meeting, held behind closed doors on Tuesday in Enugu, was attended by members of the two groups as well as a former senate president.

The full details of the meeting are yet to be made public but a reliable source said that they were asked to follow legal means to settle the dispute.

Speaker of the Assembly, Rt. Hon. Eugene Odo, confirmed that the meeting was fruitful.

“We were asked to sheathe our swords and return to status quo. We are making peace,” he said.

Efforts to get the reaction of the Hon. Chinedu Nwamba-led faction of lawmakers were futile as phone calls and text messages to him were not responded to.

An earlier schedule for the lawmakers to sit on Tuesday was aborted as security operatives manned the entrance of the assembly complex without allowing both workers and visitors to enter the premises.

It is gathered that prominent sons of the state were also making efforts to resolve the impasse so that the good works recorded by the administration in the past eight years would not be rubbished by the crisis.

The crisis, which snowballed on Monday, saw eight of the 24-member House of Assembly claiming to have impeached Speaker Odo while the majority lawmakers reacted by passing a motion to impeach Governor Chime, whom they accuse of instigating the crisis.

Some Enugu residents who expressed their view on the crisis called on the lawmakers and out-going Governor Sullivan Chime to put the interest of the state above any other so that the in-coming administration would not inherit crisis.

•Adapted from a NAN report. Photo shows in-coming Enugu Governor Ugwuanyi.

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