Edo2020: Issues On Edo State House Of Assembly And Pastor Ize-Iyamu’s Involvement – By Elempe Dele
It has now been established that the APC factional candidate, Pastor Ize-Iyamu, is a big threat to democracy. If there is no evidence of this fact, his congratulatory message to the huge joke called impeachment has given credence to the fact that he supports illegalities.
For a lawyer he is supposed to be if he was really practicing, he should have known that impeachment is a process, not an event. It is not what you wake up to and effect without due process.
That apart, the cases bordering on their membership are still in the court without adjudication. So what gives these wantaways the rights of an illegal action not backed by law nor commonsense? How could 14 members of the house who refused on their own to be inaugurated just wake up from their distant Abuja slumber after so many months to impeach a sitting speaker from a hidden location?
The truth is, PDP is not perturbed. Our only constraint is that it hindered our smooth campaigns in Etsako where the governor had to leave and come down to Benin to bring the treasonous act to order.
PDP understands that this act of rascality was orchestrated by Oshiomole and Pastor Ize-Iyamu who have nothing to campaign with going forward is a way to bring the Edo politics into unexpected friction. They have both destroyed reputations before the electorates so their only chance is to see that the state becomes available to violent anarchists.
However, PDP has vowed to adhere to the tenets of democracy, campaign on issues rather than on Illegalities, address the needs of it’s teaming supporters and bring governance to the grassroots for maximum impact.
The PDP government must acknowledge these illegalities and find a way through all legal means to address them as they come, however, the focus of the party is geared towards wooing the electorates and winning the September 19th elections despite the distractions.
The PDP government must acknowledge these illegalities and find a way through all legal means to address them as they come, however, the focus of the party is geared towards wooing the electorates and winning the September 19th elections despite the distractions.
According to the Edo State House of Assembly Speaker, Rt.Hon. Okiye, the former 14-Member-elect have no seats in the house and that he remains the speaker. He described his purported impeached by non-members of the Assembly as treason and no Nigeria should take their actions seriously.
According to Mr. Speaker, the issue should not be taken seriously, he retariated, because the House only has Ten members who were inaugurated in June 2019 by the proclamation of the governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki.
He said in a chat with Channels TV: “Ordinarily I would’ve bothered myself about it because it is a non-issue, a few of them could’ve gathered in a private bar and did what they did. We sat yesterday and we did the normal house duties and adjoined seating, I don`t know where they got 17 members to be impeaching me, because we are 10 in the house as we speak.
“We already got intelligence report that some persons including the governor of Imo state and the former national chairman of APC were gathering to subvert the legality of the institution and take over the House today, so we went to the house this morning and we discovered that some elements of truth were imbedded in the information we heard and the news had gone everywhere, Edo people gathered at the assembly, Police were also there to protect government properties, the governor came and we addressed a world press conference and insisted that anything built on illegality will not stand.
“On the issue of not having the majority number, the Speaker said: On the 17th of June, 2019, the house was inaugurated through the proclamation of the Governor, Nine members showed up and fourteen refused to show up and we were at the Federal High court in Abuja and the inauguration was affirmed as legal and since then we went about our business of legislation bringing our number to 10 and going to a year because of the constitutional provision that you must meet 181 days, a lot of our members come short of this provision and we did not have a choice to declare their seats vacant after much persuasion for them to come and be inaugurated, so as it stands, those seats are vacant.”
Okiye also described the failed attempt as a treasonable offense, insisting however that the 10 legislators are still in place.