Members of the Edo State House of Assembly have resumed after a 5-week recess, and, expectedly, sat at two different venues on Monday.

While the lawmakers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) sat at the State Assembly Complex, their All Progressives Party counterparts held their sitting at the Government House.

Both factions proposed and adopted their business calendars for the new quarter.

Since June, the Edo lawmakers have been holding parallel sittings at the separate venues.

The House was divided after the suspension of three PDP members of the House and the deputy speaker, who is a member of the APC. They were accused of gross misconduct.

Three of the suspended lawmakers defected from the APC to the PDP before they were suspended. The lawmakers dismissed the allegations and insisted that they would continue to attend plenaries. They claim that the House did not follow due process in suspending them.

After their suspension, in what has been described as legislative infamy, they made an early appearance at the House in an attempt to suspend the substantive speaker of the House and 15 others.

They were joined by four other PDP lawmakers and declared the majority suspended.

But there was more trouble when the majority forced their way back into the House and drove them away.

Their action flared tempers as riot policemen were deployed to control the violence which broke out.

The two groups later briefed the press with each staking a claim to the leadership of the House.

Traditional leaders had asked the lawmakers to resolve the crisis before it escalates, but Monday’s separate plenaries showed that they were still far from resolving the issue.