The face-off between the All Progressives Congress lawmakers and their Peoples Democratic Party counterparts has left the legislature sharply divided, writes ALEXANDER OKERE No doubt, the Edo State House of Assembly has suffered a major setback since June 11, 2014, following the squabble between the 15 All Progressives Congress lawmakers and their nine Peoples Democratic Party counterparts over supremacy at the Anthony Enahoro Assembly Complex in Benin. Three weeks after the suspension of the Deputy Speaker, Festus Ebea, and four other PDP lawmakers by the APC lawmakers on grounds of misconduct, the crisis took a new dimension when the APC lawmakers led by the Speaker, Uyi Igbe, resumed plenary at the old legislative chamber located in the Government House, impeached Ebea and swore-in a replacement who took oath of office immediately. A member of the House, Folly Ogedengbe, representing Owan-East I, who moved the motion for the impeachment, noted that Ebea, whom he said was on suspension, was bound to be impeached, citing Section 92 (2C) of the 1999 Constitution and Section 72, Rule 19, of the House. Also, the Speaker, while noting that the venue for the sitting had to be changed due to the ongoing repairs at the assembly complex caused by the purported break-in by the PDP lawmakers, explained that Ebea was impeached for “gross misconduct.” He also disclosed that the director of works in charge of the legislature said it would take a couple of weeks for works to be completed and that subsequent sittings would be held at the old chamber. “The renovation work going on was caused by the fact that the former Deputy Speaker and a group of aides forcibly entered the place, destroying doors and windows. Of course, we had to repair them and put them back to shape. So, rather than sitting at home doing only oversight functions, I think the idea is that we should have somewhere to do plenary,” Igbe said. Ebea, however, described his impeachment as “executive impunity.” He said the development indicated that the crisis in the assembly was the handiwork of Governor Adams Oshiomhole, whom he said had ulterior motives. Ebea said, “These APC members are a bunch of dishonourable people who have lost sense of human and legislative dignity. Finally, Edo people now know that Governor Oshiomhole precipitated the crisis in the House for his personal gains. He has finally collapsed Uyi Igbe and his co-travellers into his executive. What a shame! However, all they did in Governor Oshiomhole’s office today was not sitting but executive impunity. To all extent, it is null and void.” One of the PDP legislators, whose name and signature appeared on the impeachment document signed by 16 members of the House, Razak Momoh, raised the alarm that his signature was forged, saying he did not attend the sitting that led to the July 2 impeachment. At a news conference attended by all the PDP lawmakers in the House and leaders of the party in the state, held in Benin, the lawmaker representing Etsako-West I Constituency said that the 15 APC lawmakers forged his signature to carry out the impeachment of the deputy speaker in order to fulfill the constitutional requirement of the two-thirds needed to impeach Ebea. Momoh explained that he was with his PDP colleagues and the state chairman of the party throughout the period the APC lawmakers met at the Government House, pointing out that the alleged forgery had been perpetrated in the past to damage his name. “I want it known to the whole world and the Inspector-General of Police how my signature was forged.” Also reacting to the impeachment, the PDP State Chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, described the plenary held by the APC lawmakers at the Government House as an abnormal act targeted at eroding the principles of separation of powers. He added that while two-thirds majority was needed to impeach a speaker or a deputy speaker, only 15 lawmakers including the assembly speaker were present at the plenary where the deputy speaker was impeached. Orbih, who disclosed that there were nine PDP members in the Assembly, rather than eight, added that the party had the responsibility to defend its lawmakers in the House and the people of the state. “For some time now, we have noticed Governor Oshiomhole’s lust for power. Before now, we raised the alarm of how he wanted to bring the judiciary under his control. We want to say that he has achieved that goal and now wants to extend his total conquest to the legislative arm of government,” Orbih said. However, the state APC stuck to its gun that the impeachment was signed by 16 members of the House. In a statement signed by the state Chairman of Edo APC, Anselm Ojezua, the party disclosed that the House did form the required two-thirds majority out of a total of 20 lawmakers because four of the members were under suspension. “The opposition ignorantly makes noise about the number of Assembly members that can remove the Deputy Speaker from office by claiming that the House did not meet the two-thirds requirement to so remove Festus Ebea as Deputy Speaker. For the avoidance of doubt, the notice of impeachment of Festus Ebea was signed by 16 members of the House. This clearly was more than the 13 signatures required to impeach him. It must be borne in mind that with the suspension of four members, only 20 members are, for now, legitimately entitled to attend and participate in legislative business of the House of Assembly,” he said. One of the lawmakers and the House Committee Chairman on Youths, Sports and Information, Adjoto Kabiru, alleged that policemen harassed the workers with one of them threatening to shoot the Speaker. He also claimed that the policemen, whom he described as trigger-happy, pointed their guns at “everybody” in the complex, while calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to call the police and the Edo PDP to order. Edo State Police Commissioner, Folusho Adebanjo, however, said that the police were deployed to halt the ongoing repairs to forestall a possible fracas between the supporters of the PDP and the APC. Adebanjo, who explained that the action was to prevent the destruction of property in the state, also noted that he would not allow violence in the state. The crisis took another twist on July 7 when the two factions in the state legislature held separate plenary sessions with different maces, clerks and sergeants-at-arm. One the one hand, the PDP lawmakers, who sat in the chambers of the assembly as early as 7am, told newsmen after its sitting that it had passed resolutions, among which was the condemnation of the assembly repairs. Ebea, who sat as Speaker, condemned the Assembly repairs. The Edo State House of Assembly Commission, in a public service announcement dated July 7, 2014, and signed by the Chairman, Emmanuel Oronsaye, however, denied that the two men, Omoregbe Osagie and Okoh Godwin, who bore the mace and acted as the clerk for the PDP lawmakers were bona fide staff of the state assembly. It read, “Both officers were dismissed as per our letters Nos. P. C. 944/78 of 20th December, 2010 and P. C. 372/83 of 16th February 2011 for certificated forgery. The attention of the Edo State House of Assembly commission has been drawn to the roles the two dismissed officers played at the purported sitting of the PDP legislators as Sergeant-at-Arms and Clerk-at-Table respectively on Monday 7th July, 2014 at the Anthony Enahoro Assembly Complex, Ring road, Benin City.” On the other hand, the 15 APC lawmakers, who sat at the old legislative chamber of the Government House, suspended two other PDP lawmakers. The 15 lawmakers said that the members, Emma Okoduwa and Kingsley Ehigiamusor, who were both the minority leader and minority whip of the House, respectively, were suspended for allegedly aiding other PDP lawmakers’ entry into the chamber of the Anthony Enahoro Assembly Complex to hold plenary. One of the lawmakers, representing Owan-West, Michael Ohio- Ezomo, in a motion on matter of urgent public importance, said the action of the PDP leaders in the House contravened section 95, sub-section 1, and section 99 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended. Ohio-Ozomo also alleged that Okoduwa and Ehiagiamusor led other PDP legislators to hold a parallel sitting in the Assembly, having been aware of the temporary relocation of plenary to the old legislative chamber due to the ongoing renovation in the Assembly complex. The two warring parties have sought court injunctions to justify their positions. The Court of Appeal sitting in Benin on Thursday dismissed the application by the four suspended members of Edo State House Assembly, challenging an order restraining them from the Assembly Complex for lack of merit. The four lawmakers also rejected an interim order restraining them from going to the chamber and legislative quarters and subsequently approached the Court of Appeal to challenge the order. The appellate court dismissed the embattled lawmakers’ suit on the ground that the Assembly members had ignored an interim order against them by a lower court. In a ruling, Justice H. M. Ogunwunmiju, along with two other justices, said the lawmakers should have obeyed the order restraining them from going to the House of Assembly and allowed the motion on notice to be argued. “It is quite obvious in law also that a stay of execution is not granted in void. The party in contempt cannot deliberately flout an order of the court and proceed to seek remedy in a higher court while still in contempt of the lower court,” the judge said. She explained that the applicants acted with undue haste and jumped the gun. Ogunwunmiju said, “They did not give the judge, who granted the order, the opportunity of considering the motion on notice for the interlocutory injunction. It would have been an opportunity for both parties to argue all issues, deliberate on them and resolve.” However, Justice Mohammed Liman of a Federal High Court sitting in Benin, on Friday, July 11, 2014, struck out the prayer by the Speaker and 14 other APC lawmakers for an order of interim injunction restraining the nine PDP lawmakers in the House from “further purporting to carry out” their legislative functions as lawmakers by sitting or holding plenary sessions “wheresoever,” pending the hearing of the motion on notice. The people of Edo are looking forward to the effects the court rulings will have on the lingering crisis in the legislature.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 08:57:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015