Edo Speaker denies impeachment rumour

Edo Speaker denies impeachment rumour

Monday, May 22, 2017 7:58 pm


Dr Justin Okonoboh: Speaker, Edo House of Assembly

Jethro Ibileke/Benin

The Speaker of Edo State House of Assembly (ESHA), Mr. Justin Okonoboh, has denied an alleged plan by some members of the House to impeach him.

Okonoboh dismissed the impeachment allegation on Monday, adding that there was no such plan to impeach him.

The resumption on Monday by the House which has been on recess for about two months had to be postponed indefinitely as its leadership allegedly got wind of an alleged plan by a former Speaker to remove the incumbent.

The alleged attempts by the plotter to get the signatures of 16 members of the House in order to facilitate the impeachment process, however, failed.

‎It was gathered that the Speaker later led other members of the House to the Government House to meet with the Governor.

Reacting, the member representing Oredo‎ East, Mr. Chris Okaeben, noted that there was every tendency that the former Speaker would want to come back to the helm of affairs at the House.

“You will recall that some time ago, some journalists paid me a visit in my office‎, when this rumour was also thrown in the domain that there was a plan for the estwhile Speaker to come back. But we did play it down because, of course, we wanted to manage information.

“But like we say in our local parable, when a rat has tasted sweet fish, there is every tendency that the rat wants to go back to that fish to bite from it. That is the way I describe it. There is every tendency that he wants to come back. Some of us do not sleep well at night because we do not know what will happen next. But there is nothing to fear.‎”

Interview with journalists, the Speaker, however, attributed the postponement of sitting to ongoing renovation work within the Assembly complex, adding that there was no division.

“First, we are renovating the chambers. It is a 24-member House. We cannot think and reason in the same way; we think differently. But what we do is to struggle to present a common front before the people of Edo State.

“In the House, the minority will have their say and the majority will have their way. It is just the normal thing; there is no division,” Okonoboh said.


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