Abu Akkouz revealed that he prevented parliament speaker Aqailah Saleh from meeting UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame at Dar Salam Hotel, threatening to open a barrage of gunfire at them if they dared and met at the hotel.
Tobruk old man boasts of horror he causes to MPs
The old man, Faraj Abu Atiwa Al-Obaidi, has become very famous in the Libyan political scene because of his meddling in the House of Representatives in Tobruk, east Libya.
Recently, Abu Atiwa started sitting outside Dar Salam Hotel where the MPs are meeting to make sure that the parliament discussions do not cross his red lines.
In an interview with Haftar-owned TV channel “Libya Al-Hadat” last week, he boasted of how he uses his walking stick to hit the MPs and end the parliament sessions in case of any violations to the red lines.
Abu Atiwa is a tribal leader from Abidat tribe and has become known as Abu Akkouz, “the man with walking stick.”
In the interview, he revealed that he had closed the parliament in many occasions; disrupted the democratic process and took part in plots aimed at overthrowing the previous three Libyan governments.
According to him, being his house near the hotel, he was able to go and sit in the parliament in every session to monitor the debate.
Local residents said that he claims ownership of the land on which the hotel was built, and alleges that the former regime of Gaddafi had taken it from his family illegally, and this made him move through the hotel corridors as if in his house, and no one can put an end to this.
Abu Akkouz recounted in the interview one of the occasions in which he intervened and spoiled the parliament sitting (see video below) when around 101 MPs were planning to debate the Libyan Political Agreement, which he utterly rejects, accusing both parliament members Emhimmed Shuaib and Abu Baker Baira of receiving bribes in order to sign the agreement in Skhirat, Morocco.
In that session, Abu Akkouz ordered his cousin and member of the parliament, Saleh Hashim, to inform him when the MPs start debating the agreement. Sitting outside the hall where the MPs were about to meet, he also ordered one of his aides to sit near the circuit breaker panel of the hotel to switch off the lights in case they needed this.
As soon as he was informed about the start of the debate over the Libyan Political Agreement, he stormed the hall, threatened the MPs and warned them of serious consequences if they approved the political agreement and the government of Fayaz Sarraj.
In the midst of the chaos he caused, the parliament speaker Aqailah Salah ended the session unexpectedly and all the MPs left.
[VIDEO::https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBSySZiRb3Y]
Speaking about a second interference, he showed off his ability to spoil the parliament’s second attempt to discuss the Libyan Political Agreement after around four months from the first one.
This time, he broke into the hall and beat the first deputy speaker Emhimmed Shuaib with his walking stick, throwing him on the ground.
According to him, some MPs intervened and prevented him from a second beat, while the other MPs escaped from the hall in panic.
Sources said this beat was one of the reasons behind Shuaib’s resignation from the parliament.
Abu Akkouz also recalled his third interference in the parliament sittings. He said around 120 MPs gathered at Dar Salam Hotel for a third attempt to discuss the LPA and approve the government of Fayaz Sarraj, but he was on time to prevent them.
According to his claims, he again stormed the hall, while security guards stand watching, and threatened the MPs with a mobile trick, leaving them horror-struck.
“I took my mobile, which was switched off, and deluded the MPs that I was speaking with my son telling him to come and explode the hotel,” he boasted, adding that the MPs fled the hotel in a state of horror.
However, he said he had given permission to the MPs to meet to give a vote of confidence to Mohammed Al-Shukri as “Governor of Central Bank of Libya”, on the condition that they do not discuss the LPA at all.
(Abu Akkouz, Faraj Abu Atiwa Al-Obaidi sitting outside Dar Salam Hotel)
Worse than interference, Abu Akkouz revealed that he once prevented parliament speaker Aqailah Saleh from meeting UN envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame at Dar Salam Hotel, threatening to open a barrage of gunfire at them if they dared and met at the hotel.
“They took Salame to one of their guest houses and met him there,” he bragged.
Abu Akkouz labeled Salame as “a failed person”, saying if he had something good to do, he would have done it to his country Lebanon.
Speaking about Tawergha IDPs in Qrarat Al-Qatif district, he said the IDPs must return to their town, even by force, adding that Misrata “has no wise men and its people did what the devil didn’t do.”
Abu Akkouz disclosed that a meeting of Libyan tribes, except Misrata, will be held in Harawa town, 50km east of Sirte, to sign a code of honor to reject what he called “the UN trusteeship over Libya, and to prevent Misrata from ruling Libya."
He accused Misrata of “destroying Libyan airports and having control over the central bank to starve the Libyans”, claiming ability to “control the city” in “two hours.”
Abu Akkouz renewed in the interview his loyalty to Dignity Operation and its commander Khalifa Haftar, saying that all girls, boys, men and women of Cyrenaica appointed Haftar after many beheading crimes in Benghazi, Derna and Ajdabiya.
Faraj Abu Atiwa is a tribal leader from Tobruk. Observers say Khalifa Haftar exploits him with other tribal elders to spoil the political process in order to pave the way for his plots to rule the country militarily.
