A scuffle erupted in Georgia’s assembly on Monday as two members of parliament engaged in fisticuffs over a controversial law that has sparked debate in the country.

After widespread protest and international criticisms last year, Georgia’s ruling party withdrew what many called the “Russian-style” draft law.

However, earlier this month, the government announced it would reintroduce the legislation, renaming it a bill on the “transparency of foreign influence”.

The bill would require non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad, to register as an “organisation serving the interests of a foreign power”, or face possible fines.

Irakli Kobakhidze, prime minister, said the proposed law was needed to ensure the financial transparency of grant recipients.

However, critics argue that the bill is inspired by authoritarian laws neighbouring Russia uses to crush dissent and is an attempt to sabotage the country’s chances of joining the European Union (EU).

The Georgian government has rejected any comparison to the Russian legislation.

The parliamentary session turned chaotic when opposition MPs, concerned about the bill’s potential impact on Georgian sovereignty, clashed with supporters of the legislation.

“I agree that no Russian laws should be adopted in Georgia,” Mamuka Mdinaradze, parliamentary leader of Georgian Dream, the ruling party, said during the debate.

Shortly afterwards, Aleko Elisashvili, opposition MP, charged at Mdinaradze and punched him in the face, triggering a brawl in parliament.

The scuffle came as thousands of people demonstrated in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, demanding the withdrawal of the bill.

Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), has handed over 100 motorcycles to security agencies and the six area councils in Abuja to boost the fight against crime in the nation’s capital.

Wike presented the motorcycles in Abuja on Monday during a brief ceremony attended by the area council chairmen and heads of the security agencies.

The minister said each of the six area councils will get 10 motorcycles, which they will issue to their vigilante outfits, while the police will get 30.

He added that the Department of State Security (DSS) and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) will get five motorcycles each.

“Remember that security agencies requested special motorcycles for use, particularly in the rural areas. This is not enough. But, we will continue to provide more,” Wike said.

“For vehicles, we believe that in the next two weeks, they will be ready to be given out to the security agencies. Anything we can do to protect lives and property, we are going to do it.

“I don’t want to hear stories tomorrow that these motorcycles are nowhere to be found again. I don’t want to hear such stories because sometimes when you give out vehicles before you know it, the vehicles are no longer there. Please utilize these motorcycles to fight crime in the areas you have identified.

“So, I urge you to use it well and take it not for commercial purposes. I don’t want to see the motorcycles in the city here. It should be used in the rural areas.

“So, please let it be taken to the rural areas. All the security outposts, you give it to them so that we don’t continue to hear excuses that the terrain is so bad, they require this and that.”

Christopher Maikalangu, chairman of the Abuja municipal area council (AMAC), thanked the minister on behalf of his colleagues for the support.

The area council chairman assured Wike that they would use the motorcycles for the purposes meant for.

Bennet Igwe, commissioner of police in the FCT, said the motorcycles would be distributed to the outposts in rural areas.

Umar Bakori, a retired navy captain and commandant-general of the Vigilance Group of Nigeria (VGN), said the motorcycles will “improve security in rural communities considerably”.

A federal capital territory high court has dismissed an application from Olu Agunloye, a former minister of power and steel, seeking to invite “amici curiae” to intervene in the criminal charge filed against him.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is prosecuting Agunloye over a $6 billion Mambilla hydropower contract.

The anti-graft agency said it traced some suspicious payments by Sunrise Power and Transmission Ltd to Agunloye’s bank accounts.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had also challenged Agunloye to tell Nigerians where he derived the authority to award a $6 billion contract to Sunrise for the Mambilla hydropower project in 2003.

Agunloye was arraigned on a seven-count charge bordering on fraudulent award of a contract and official corruption.

In a preliminary objection dated February 6, Agunloye said the EFCC lacks the powers to prosecute him because the offences levelled against him do not border on financial crimes.

Among other things, the former minister said it is the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) that has the power to prosecute him over the allegations contained in the charge.

Agunloye through his lawyer, Adeola Adedipe, added that contrary to constitutional provisions, the AGF did not give EFCC the fiat to investigate and institute proceedings in the case against his client.

In the motion for an amicus, the senior advocate of Nigeria said he would want the friends of the court to be present during the hearing of the preliminary objection.

An amicus curiae (friend of the court) is an individual who is not a party to a litigation, but volunteers or is invited to advise on a pending matter.

Agunloye sought the intervention of Lateef Fagbemi, the attorney-general of the federation (AGF); Yakubu Maikyau, president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA); Joseph Daudu, former NBA president; and Kanu Agabi, former minister of justice.

Ruling on the application on Monday, Jude Onwuegbuzie, the presiding judge, dismissed the request.

Onwuegbuzie said he believed the defendant had a competent team of lawyers to handle the case.

He added that “the court is not confused or in doubt to warrant the intervention of amici curiae”.

He said an amicus “is not supposed to be invited by parties in the suit” but that it is the responsibility of the court to do so if it so desires.