Suspended Edo lawmakers vow to attend sitting

Suspended members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Edo State House of Assembly have said that no amount of “executive rascality” will stop them from attending today’s plenary session.

A court in the state last week barred the suspended lawmakers from the Assembly and legislative quarters.

The suspended lawmakers said this at a news conference they held in company of members of the state working committee of the party and other PDP lawmakers in the House.

One of the eight PDP lawmakers and Minority Leader of the House, Emmanuel Okoduwa,

said, the suspended lawmakers will attend sittings, because according to him, two reliefs granted the APC lawmakers were strange and unworkable.

“We said the order that they cannot enter the legislative quarters is strange because as lawmakers, we pay monthly rent to live in the quarters. There is no order that will say that you cannot stay in an apartment where you pay N27, 000 monthly. The second relief which says the purportedly suspended members should not disturb the business of the House is simply asking someone, who was elected to represent his people not to do so. As a matter of fact, legislative business can never be complete without such a person. So, the orders are not enforceable if they were granted in the first place,” Okoduwa said.

Chairman of the PDP in the state, Chief Dan Orbih, Orbih, said the crisis rocking the Edo House of Assembly would have been resolved after a meeting of all the 24 members of the House on Wednesday, but for the involvement of Governor Adams Oshiomhole, who he alleged asked the APC lawmakers to renege on the agreements earlier reached.

Orbih added that the visit of the APC lawmakers to the House of Assembly on Friday when plenary had been adjourned to Monday, was questionable, adding that the party has been informed that the APC lawmakers have allegedly hidden weapons which they plan to use on the PDP lawmakers.

“There is an attempt to bring Edo State to its knees. We are aware that, as usual, the APC thugs would be coming out today to fight the PDP lawmakers on the orders of Governor Adams Oshiomhole. This order is based on the so called court order of Justice Eboreime. If there is crisis in Edo State, we would call on the National Judicial Council to investigate the circumstances under which Justice Eboreime issued her order because she is inviting crisis. The judiciary should not be used by the APC government against elected members of the House and the Edo people are concerned about what is going on in the state. Our members went to court to seek protection and they got it”, he said.

Reacting to the allegations, APC members in the Assembly denied planting weapons in the chambers.

Chairman, House Committee of Information, Kabiru Adjoto, said the members went to the Assembly on Friday to continue their legitimate activities.