PDP, Oshiomhole bicker over Edo Assembly crisis New Telegraph.July 7, 2014 The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Edo State Governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday engaged in altercation over the crisis rocking the state legislature. The PDP accused the governor of sponsoring the crisis to prevent an impending probe into his management of public funds. But in a quick rebuttal, Oshiomhole dismissed the allegation, which he described as “fabricated tales from the moonlight.” The state legislature has been plunged into a crisis as fallout of the upheaval in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that made some lawmakers to defect to the PDP Four of the lawmakers, including the Deputy Speaker, Festus Ebea, who was removed last Thursday at a sitting of the legislature at the old chamber, located in the Government House, Benin, have been suspended. But reacting to the swirling crisis in the state legislature, the PDP, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Olisa Metuh, asked Nigerians to hold the governor responsible in the case of any breakdown of law and order in the state. The party attributed the crisis to an alleged attempt by the governor to block the legislature from inquiring into his “financial recklessness.” It further accused Oshiomhole of “stirring up the political crisis in Edo State to prevent an official investigation into findings that he has been squandering the state’s resources, including huge levies and taxes to finance his campaign for vice-presidency instead of settling down to develop the state.” The party alleged that the governor was embittered by the defection of his aides, top government functionaries, legislators and influential APC leaders to PDP. “Having lost the confidence and support of the people due to his despotic, anti-people and undemocratic tendencies, coupled with his colossal administrative failures, Governor Oshiomhole has resorted to violence and blackmail to intimidate and subdue them in line with the agenda of his party, the APC. “The fact that Edo is home to the PDP has never been in doubt. In fact, what is happening in Edo State is clearly a case of water finding its level”, the statement added. According to the party, the crisis was instigated to disorganise and compromise the legislature. The party said nobody would have prompted the relocation of the state leg islature to the governor’s office if it were not a calculated plot to intimidate and compromise the lawmakers and prevent them from carrying out their constitutional duties of checking the excesses of the executive. “We however wish to inform the Edo State governor and the APC that their machinations will lead them to nowhere. They must understand that they have not only failed the people but have also betrayed them. The people of Edo State are no fools and cannot continue to stay under an administration that has no regard for them. “Nobody wants to continue to support a fascist regime that has shown untold penchant for oppression and brutality; a despotic system that continues to impose multiple taxes and levies on the people to promote parochial interests and exercises its whims with reckless abandon. “The APC and its government in Edo State have since disconnected from the people. They have refused to be accountable and that is why the people have abandoned them for the PDP where they found a level playing ground to canvass and fully realise their aspirations and yearnings as a people and individuals. “The macabre dance playing out in the Edo Assembly is an expression of defeatism or rather a terminal symptom of a decadent regime, so afraid that in the circumstances of unrestrained freedom, its hackneyed popularity in Edo will collapse,” the party stated. But Oshiomhole fired back, saying PDP was engaging in propaganda. The governor, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Prince Kassim Afegbua, described the crisis in the state legislature as a product of PDP’s desperation. He said: “The crisis in Edo Assembly is a product of PDP’s desperation for power in its attempt to capture anything in sight like a bunch of famished baboons. “It is the same theatre of desperation that is pervading the entire political landscape as a consequence of PDP’s show of raw power. We find it laughable that Olisa Metuh who is reputed to be a propagandist and who had earlier lied against the Comrade Governor has come up again to embark on another tale of the absurd. “Comrade Oshiomhole’s record of performance in Edo State has since become a reference point in the history of performance and good governance in Nigeria. His tremendous achievements across the state could only have been possible through prudent and transparent management of resources, especially in a state that was run aground by the PDP for 10 solid but sordid years. Reminding Edo people of those forgone years of the locust is to insult the collective sensibilities of the people. “We are not aware that the Comrade Governor ever sought to contest for vice-president of the country. In fact, we would have loved a situation where he would run for president of the country to take us away from this regime of tactlessness that has almost earned Nigeria a failed state status. Under the constitution of Nigeria, the Edo governor has all it takes to contest for any office in the land.” Oshiomhole disputed allegations of mismanaging public funds, adding that he is not afraid of being probed. “The four members of the Edo State Assembly who tried to usurp the powers of the House only got a teaser of what they bargained for. To play around with a governor that was popularly elected by the people in the state meant that they will incur the wrath of the people. The oversight function of the Assembly is not in doubt, and as a responsible, prudent and transparent government, our books are open for public scrutiny all the time.” Meanwhile, Ebea yesterday accused the APC lawmakers, led by the Speaker, Uyi Igbe, of planning to cripple proceedings in the legislature. He vowed to lead PDP lawmakers for a plenary session today because the APC lawmakers had decided not to hold plenary sessions at the main chamber any longer, but to continue sitting in the Government House. But Igbe warned the PDP lawmakers to desist from holding their proposed plenary session at the complex and threatened to stop the opposition group from sitting. He said: “We are telling them it is not possible for them to attempt to sit. We will rise against it and defend ourselves without our security. Our blood will spill on this matter because we know we are right. They have threatened to kill me and Monday will be the right time.” As the crisis in the state legislature festers, a human rights activist and chairman of One Love Family and Caring Association, Chief Patrick Eholor, has filed a suit against Igbe and 23 other lawmakers at the High Court sitting in Benin City for refusal to hold sittings and perform their legislative duties since June 9. Eholor is also seeking a declaration that the sitting of the lawmakers at the Government House on July 2, or other such sittings amount to a breach of the 1999 Constitution on the principles of separation of power. In the suit, dated July 4, filed by his counsel, T.A Akahomen, Eholor is praying the court to direct the lawmakers to refund all financial benefits they may have received from the state accountant-general and commissioner of finance from the day they abandoned their responsibilities as members of the assembly to the coffers of the Edo State Government. He prayed the court to compel the accountantgeneral and commissioner of finance to suspend any financial benefits or entitlements, including constituency allowances due to the lawmakers until they resume their duties as members of the Edo State House of Assembly.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 06:14:04 +0000
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