Speaker of Edo State House of Assembly, Mr. Frank Okiye, on Wednesday raised the alarm over what he called dubious plans by Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State and stakeholders of the APC in the state, to import a fake mace with a view to forcefully take over the Assembly.
He alleged that the plans were being perfected in collusion with the impeached Deputy Speaker, Yekini Idiaye.
Okiye stated this in a statement he made available to journalists in Benin, the state capital.
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He called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Presidency to call Uzodinma and others working with him on the plans to desist and allow the laws of the state to guide them.
“The state’s polity is already heated by the high political tension from the electioneering campaigns. Their planned action is akin to lighting a match in an already tensed political environment, which conflagration is capable of causing crisis in the state, and of a scale beyond our imagination.
“We call on Edo people whose mandate and interests the state’s legislature holds and protects, to rise against this planned attack and plot to subvert their will and subjugate them, using external forces.
“We urge lovers of democracy across the world, institutions that uphold democratic tenets and values, pro-democracy groups, to denounce this planned illegality that seeks to distract a duly constituted authority.
“We recognise the constitutional right of the three members of the House of Assembly to support the candidate of their choice, but that should not distract them from coming to work to carry out the job they were elected for,” he said.
Okiye said he and his colleagues remained committed to the protection of the democratic rights of Edo people, noting that legislature remained a sacred institution in the democratisation process.
When contacted for reaction, the Commissioner for Special Projects of Imo State, Mr. Simon Ebegbulem, said: “The illegal Speaker and his governor are not making sense to me with this baseless allegation. I don’t even know what they are talking about because there is no House of Assembly in Edo State. I think that is why the so-called Speaker is running away from his shadow like a criminal that will always run once he sees a law enforcement agent.
“However, I don’t know why he should draw the leg of His Excellency, Governor Hope Uzodinma into his political problems. My Governor is interested in working with other APC governors and stakeholders to reclaim Edo State which has been an APC State before Governor Obaseki donated it to the PDP.
“The illegal Speaker and his principal are already jittery because of the imminent defeat in the coming election. You can see that his aides are resigning everyday, including his Deputy Speaker. Now he is left with five lawmakers and does that show that he is in charge?”
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
