Edo State House of Assembly on Wednesday raised the alarm over alleged plan by the governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma and other stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to take over the house of assembly.
Frank Okiye, Speaker of the house in a statement made available to newsmen in Benin City, however called on President Muhammadu Buhari to call the governor and others working with him to execute the illegal plan to desist and allow the laws of the state to guide them.
Okiye alleged that Uzodinma and APC leaders are in a secret agreement with the impeached deputy speaker, Yekini Idiaye to import a fake mace to illegally and violently take over control of the assembly.
According to him, the dubious plan by the Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma and stakeholders of the APC in Edo State to import a fake mace to take over the Edo State House of Assembly working in collusion with the Deputy Speaker, Yekini Idiaye who recently declared support for the candidate of the APC to congregate in a secret location to illegally and violently take over control of the assembly has been brought to our notice.
The speaker who said there is already heat up in the polity, noted that their planned action is similar 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 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 added.
While noting that the house is committed to the protection of democratic rights, he however, urged Edo people, lovers of democracy to rise against the planned attack.
Reacting to the allegations, Simon Ebegbulem, Imo State Commissioner for Special Projects, said the speaker is tensed because of his party’s impending defeat in the forthcoming governorship election.
“The Speaker is 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 drag 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 Speaker and others 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,” he added.
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