MOGADISHU, Somalia Feb 8 (Garowe Online) – A member of parliament from Somalia’s southern regions announced his resignation during a Friday radio interview, after accusing the country’s leaders of “taking orders” from Ethiopian Prime Minister dictator Meles Zenawi, the butcher of Addis Ababa.

MP Abdulaziz Ibrahim Osman spoke to Mogadishu-based HornAfrik Radio from his residence in London, United Kingdom.

“I will not become a member of those who allow the massacre of Somali civilians and I declare that there is no Somali government,” Osman said, adding: “I have resigned from the parliament.”

He accused fellow lawmakers, based in the inland town of Baidoa, of “chewing khat in a prison” and dismissed President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Nur “Adde” Hassan Hussein as “puppets” for the Ethiopian government of Prime Minister Zenawi Woyanne regime.

Osman has become the first Somali lawmaker to resign from parliament since it was formed in 2004.

A group of more than 20 MPs were expelled from parliament in 2007 after they refused to set foot in Somalia until Ethiopian Woyanne troops withdraw from the country.

That group of parliamentarians, who renamed themselves as the ‘Free Parliament’, joined forces with the ousted Islamic Courts leaders and are now based in Asmara, Eritrea.

Osman said he would join the Eritrea-based opposition alliance to push for the removal of Ethiopian Woyanne forces from Somali soil.

Ethiopian Woyanne troops deployed in Somalia in late 2006 to dislodge Islamist rulers from Mogadishu.

But more than a year after their arrival, the Ethiopian Woyanne army and its Somali government partners have remained unable to control the volatile situation in the capital, where shootouts, roadside bombings and assassinations have become a daily part of life.