The 8th Abia State House of Assembly may not be as peaceful as the previous ones following events coming out of the legislative house.
The rancour which started on June 14, 2023 during its inauguration has continued unabated.
On July 4, 2023, members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), eleven (11) in number, walked out of the house during session, to protest an attempt by Kingsley Emeruwa of the Labour Party and Speaker of the House to impose a minority (LP) member of the House, as its majority leader, a development Solomon Akpulonu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), member, representing Obingwa East State constituency objected to.
Abia State House of Assembly has 24 members and out of the number, the PDP won 11 seats, the Labour Party won 10 seats, while the Young Progressive Party (YPP) won 2 and All Progressives Congress (APC) won 1 seat.
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Akpulonu, a ranking member of the house, described the Speaker’s action as illegal and not acceptable to the PDP.
He said that the caucus of PDP met and agreed to approach the court to help them interprete what is their rules of order 8 and rule 42. According to Akpulonu that particular rule says that a majority leader should be nominated from the majority party in the House of Assembly.
“So, it is a simple interpretation. We are not going to court against anyone and we are also going to refer to what happened on June 14, 2023, the day we were inaugurated.
“We are going to make an issue on how everything happened and also look into our rules and question whether it was right for a non-ranking member of the House to become Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly,” he said.
He also said that the State PDP executive was in support of their actions and that all the 11 PDP members in the 8th Abia State House of Assembly were signatories to the suit.
