Tony Osauzo and Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
The Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, accused Governor Godwin Obaseki of leading his party members and thugs, who were armed to the teeth, to the premises of the State House of Assembly for the singular purpose of preventing the majority seventeen members of the Assembly from performing their legitimate parliamentary duties.
Addressing journalists in Benin City, the Vice-Chairman, Media and Publicity Committee, APC National Campaign Council, Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon, stated that the governo had since relocated some seven members of the Edo State House of Assembly to be sitting in the premises of Government House, Osadebey Avenue, Benin City, just to prevent access of the State House of Assembly to the seventeen majority members.
“It is good to observe that the Police made arrests of not less than seven of these thugs who were armed with five double-barrel long guns, two single-barrel long guns, and ten live cartridges within the Edo State House of Assembly premises.
“We call on the Police to conduct a transparent investigation on who were their sponsors and prosecute all those arrested and make sure the full weight of the law is brought to bear on those arrested and their sponsors.
“On this occasion, the Governor supervised both the vandalization of the State House of Assembly by ordering the removal of its rooftops, carting away public properties from the House of Assembly and tipping trucks of granite sand at the front of the gate of the House of Assembly’s premises”, he said.
Querying why the governor would supervise the demolition of the Assembly, Obahiagbon asked: “Were these actions to prove to the whole world that both himself and the Deputy Governor enjoys immunity as he has boasted?
Reassuring the people of Edo State and Nigerians that the September 19 Governorship election will be very peaceful and free of violence, the APC chieftain slammed Obaseki for offering untenable defence of his grotesque mathematics and understanding of democracy which holds that seven persons are greater than seventeen.
“Governor Godwin Obaseki is clearly the aggressor in this plot, the one man who has refused the reign of peace, who has remained standing in the way of justice and fairness, who has put his knees on the neck of our democracy in Edo State. As the trajectory of the election reveals that the odds are against him, one may not wonder what he stands to gain from his anti-democratic practices of jackboot democracy”, Obahiagbon said.
He stated that the Legislative arm is a co-equal branch of government with a constitutionally protected independence from external interference or pressure under the principles of Separation of Powers.
“It amounts to Executive recklessness and affront on the constitution and the rule of law for Mr. Governor to unilaterally dictate over the affairs of the House and define its terms of operations and leadership.
“The 7th Assembly which Mr. Governor has since allegedly inaugurated and formed now has a new Speaker in the person of Rt. Hon. Victor Edoror, who has been elected by a seventeen-member majority over seven members, to lead the House. It is time for Mr. Obaseki to end his assault on law and order, and unclasp his anti-democratic grip on the Legislative arm of government so it can offer representation to the people of Edo State”, he added.
Meanwhile, the Edo State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), Mr. Tony Aziegbemi, yesterday, called on the Inspector General of Police, (IGP), to wade in and arrest those behind the purported impeachment of Edo State House of Assembly Speaker, Frank Okiye, that saying failing to do so will spell doom for Democracy.
He made the call while expressing the party’s position on the recent happenings in the state’s politics.
He said the action of the lawmakers was treasonable and that they should not be spared but be dealt with accordingly.
“To what happened yesterday at the House of Assembly in Edo State. As a party, we looked at the issue and we have come to the inevitable conclusion which is, there was a coup attempt yesterday in Edo State.
“There was an attempt by the APC to upset the democracy we are experiencing in Edo State and to that infect we expect the law to take its effect, all the agencies to look at this issue and come to the same conclusion that we have come to that there was a coup attempt and we all know what happens when a coup fails and the consequence embedded in that failure.
“For us, it is very clear. We are not saying this because we are the ruling party in the state. We are saying because that is what it’s”, he said.
According to Aziegbemi, those who carried out the purported impeachment are no longer members of the House of Assembly as their seats have long been declared vacant by the House having allowed themselves not to be sworn-in.
The chairman also berated the Edo State Commissioner of Police and the leadership of the Department of State Service, (DSS) for allowing the 17 lawmakers to pay them a courtesy call, adding that the visit has made the PDP to have the belief that they are not neutral in the ongoing political crisis rocking the state.
“Then the most neausating of all, the most embarrassing of all, was for the Commissioner of Police to have this purported Speaker and deputy Speaker elected yesterday in a private residence. He allowed them to come and pay him a courtesy call. The CP did that yesterday and the Director, DSS did the same thing. That is making us to imagine that these people are not playing neutrality which the constitution bestowed on them”, he said.