Four Members Of Edo House Of Assembly Suspended

Deputy Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Honourable Festus Ebea and three other members of the House, were on Monday, suspended by the Edo State House of Assembly, for alleged misconduct.

The other three lawmakers who were suspended along with the deputy speaker, Patrick Osayimwen, Friday Ogieriakhi and Jude Ise-Idehen, had all defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), from the All Progressives Congress (APC), along with Rasaq Momoh last month.

Ten members of the 24-member Assembly were present when the lawmakers were suspended for breaking Section 38, Rule 3 of the House by taking the House to court over an alleged plan to declare their seats vacant.

Paul Ohonbamu, who argued that the actions of the lawmakers constituted misconduct, moved the motion for their suspension while the majority leader of the House, Philip Shaibu, seconded it.

Chairman, Committee on Youth, Sports and Information, Kabiru Adjoto, who addressed journalists, said their action was not because the lawmakers defected to the PDP.

Adjoto said the suspended lawmakers had approached other lawmakers, offering them huge sum of money to defect to the PDP.

He accused the deputy speaker of forming a parallel leadership in the House aimed at impeaching the speaker and Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

Meanwhile, the PDP in Edo State, in a press release, that was signed by its chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, said the allegations against the party were baseless and diversionary.

“Governor Oshiomhole allegations were baseless and diversionary. He should stop this blackmail and stupid propaganda and face the legion of problems confronting the state. There is no doubt that his party is fast losing support and he is frustrated.

There is no iota of truth in the allegation and we are not spendthrift like the Oshiomhole-led government. What reason has the PDP to bribe lawmakers, whose tenure expires in 11 months? We don’t have N50 or N70 million to bribe politicians the way Oshiomhole does.  If we have such money, we will rather spend it to provide facilities that the Oshiomhole-led government has failed to provide for the Edo people.

The atmosphere at the Anthony Enahoro Complex of the Assembly was tense as some youths, led by Tony Kabaka Adun, besieged the Assembly, calling for the sack of the defecting lawmakers.

Kabaka said they could not watch the lawmakers trade off the mandate and votes they protected under the sun.

They  invaded the assembly and tried to prevent the suspended lawmakers from leaving the premises with their official cars.