The Deputy Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Hon. Yekini Idiaye has been impeached. Idiaye was impeached on Wednesday during the House’s ple
The Deputy Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Hon. Yekini Idiaye has been impeached. Idiaye was impeached on Wednesday during the House’s plenary session in Benin City. He was immediately replaced with the member representing Orhionmwon II Constituency, Roland Asoro.
The lawmaker who represents Akoko-Edo Constituency I and four other members of the Assembly had on Monday pledged their support to the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. The other four lawmakers include Hon. Emmanuel Agbaje, Akoko-Edo Constituency II; Hon. Nosayaba Okunbor, Orhiomwon East Constituency; Hon. Dumez Ugiagbe, Member-elect, Ovia North East Constituency I; and Mr. Hon. Vincent Uwadiae, Member-elect, Ovia North East Constituency II.
Speaking on why the deputy speaker was impeached, the speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Frank Okiye, said Idiaye, allegedly planned with the leaders of the All Progressives Congress and the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, “to illegally and violently take over” the Assembly.
The Speaker also called on the President Muhammadu Buhari to call members of his party to order.
He said, “We have it on good authority, the dubious plans by the governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, and the stakeholders of APC in Edo State to import a fake maze to take over the Edo State House of Assembly working in cohort with the former deputy speaker who recently declared his support for the governorship candidate of APC to congregate in a separate location to illegally and violently take over the Edo State House of Assembly as brought to our notice.
“And so, we call on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari and the presidency to urgently call this governor and others working with him to execute this illegal plan to desist and allow the laws of the state to guide them. The state polity is already heated up by the political tension from the various electioneering campaign. Their planned action is likened to lightening a match in an already tensed political environment which conflagration is capable of causing crisis in the state and may scale beyond imagination.
“We call on Edo State people, whose mandate and interest the state legislature holds and protect, to rise against this attack and plot to subvert their will and subjugate them using external forces.We urge lovers of democracy across the world and institutions that uphold democracy and value, as well as pro-democracy groups to denounce this planned illegality that seems to distract a duly constituted authority.
“We recognize the constitutional rights of the three members of the Assembly to support the candidate of their choice but that should not distract them from coming to work to carry out the job for which they were elected and become an agent of mutiny against their own primary constituencies. We are as always committed to protecting the democratic rights of our people as the legislature remains the sacred institution in the democratisation process signed by my honourable self on behalf of the Edo State House of Assembly.”
Governor Godwin Obaseki, who is seeking reelection on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, will face Ize-Iyamu of the APC, and other political contenders.
