Edo Speakership and the Makurdi humiliation
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- Written by Jonathan Asemota
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The Speakers’ conference, according to the reports, politely told Omokhodion that he was not recognized as the bona fide Speaker of Edo legislature because of the court cases challenging his emergence as Speaker in the stead of Hon. Zakawanu Garuba. Garuba and other stakeholders in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are in court seeking a return to the status quo ante.
Omokhodion reportedly stormed out of the meeting in subdued anger. In company of his aides, he refused to respond to questions by some journalists, who were in and around the premises of the banquet hall of the Benue State Government House, venue of the meeting. Consider the self-inflicted humiliation!
But the humiliation could have been avoided if the Action Congress (AC) had not embarked on the misadventure of removing Garuba through a process that was patently unconstitutional. The constitutional provision of removing the speaker through a resolution and vote of a two-third membership of the House is clear.
The AC had announced the removal of Garuba on the claim that 16 members (two-thirds) of the House signed the purported resolution. However, the PDP had insisted that only 13 AC members, including Omokhodion, who defected from the PDP to the AC on the day it (AC) perpetuated the illegality on the floor, signed the resolution.
The remaining three signatories were victims of deliberate acts of forgery, which the law enforcement agencies are said to be investigating. Besides, there was no voting on the floor, as constitutionally prescribed, to validate Garuba’s removal. But significantly, the court cases against AC’s Omokhodion and the process that threw him up as a pretender to the Speakership position are still very much alive.
Now, the judicial remedies being sought by Garuba remain the only potent force to dismantle the reign of impunity in Edo State as typified and popularized by the AC government under Governor Adams Oshiomhole. This is so because of the clear disposition by Oshiomhole to the usage of largely foul means to achieve and maintain his stranglehold on the state.
This had already manifested in the rerun elections into Akoko Edo constituency 1 and Etsako Central seats in the State House of Assembly during which Oshiomhole, who has perfected the art of deception through his “one man, one vote” slogan, deployed the force of intimidation and/or coercion of government machinery to manipulate the voting/election in favour of the AC.
That was a foul means. The orchestrated confusion on the floor of the State House of Assembly, which resulted in the unconstitutional removal of Garuba as speaker, was yet another. The claim by the AC that bombs were planted on the premises of the State House of Assembly and the Edo State Broadcasting Services (EBS) was an outlandish propaganda.
The House of Representatives condemned the aberration that manifested in the emergence of Omokhodion as Speaker and passed a resolution that steps should be taken to return the state legislature and the three Local Government Areas whose chairmen were illegally suspended to the status quo.
He spurned the resolution of the House of Representatives. He threw bile at the House and its leadership because the resolution was against his unconstitutional actions. Whereas, when the first move by the House Leader, Hon. Tunde Akogun (from Edo State) to introduce the motion suffered a set-back, the same Oshiomhole praised the House of Representatives to high heavens.
Oshiomhole has a strange attitude: he wants to be adjudged right all the time even when he is evidently wrong. Suffice it to say that he is intolerant of criticisms; he is disposed to adulation. But he can only have a surfeit of hero worship in Edo State where he has become an emperor of sort even when he is encouraging impunity.
However, beyond Edo State, there are voices of reason speaking against Oshiomhole’s culture of unconstitutionality for political mileage. The latest was from Makurdi where the Conference of Speakers made it clear to Omokhodion that his speakership was illegal and encumbered; and, therefore, he had to be excused out of the speakers’ meeting
Asemota contributed this piece from Benin City
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Edo Speakership and the Makurdi humiliation
Category: Comments Written by Jonathan Asemota Hits: 710
Last Friday (April 23, 2010) in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, an incident which should elicit somberness on the part of the controversial Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Bright Omokhodion, happened. Media reports said that the Conference of Speakers of the 36 State Houses of Assembly barred him (Omokhodion) from participating in its meeting.The Speakers’ conference, according to the reports, politely told Omokhodion that he was not recognized as the bona fide Speaker of Edo legislature because of the court cases challenging his emergence as Speaker in the stead of Hon. Zakawanu Garuba. Garuba and other stakeholders in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are in court seeking a return to the status quo ante.
Omokhodion reportedly stormed out of the meeting in subdued anger. In company of his aides, he refused to respond to questions by some journalists, who were in and around the premises of the banquet hall of the Benue State Government House, venue of the meeting. Consider the self-inflicted humiliation!
But the humiliation could have been avoided if the Action Congress (AC) had not embarked on the misadventure of removing Garuba through a process that was patently unconstitutional. The constitutional provision of removing the speaker through a resolution and vote of a two-third membership of the House is clear.
The AC had announced the removal of Garuba on the claim that 16 members (two-thirds) of the House signed the purported resolution. However, the PDP had insisted that only 13 AC members, including Omokhodion, who defected from the PDP to the AC on the day it (AC) perpetuated the illegality on the floor, signed the resolution.
The remaining three signatories were victims of deliberate acts of forgery, which the law enforcement agencies are said to be investigating. Besides, there was no voting on the floor, as constitutionally prescribed, to validate Garuba’s removal. But significantly, the court cases against AC’s Omokhodion and the process that threw him up as a pretender to the Speakership position are still very much alive.
Now, the judicial remedies being sought by Garuba remain the only potent force to dismantle the reign of impunity in Edo State as typified and popularized by the AC government under Governor Adams Oshiomhole. This is so because of the clear disposition by Oshiomhole to the usage of largely foul means to achieve and maintain his stranglehold on the state.
This had already manifested in the rerun elections into Akoko Edo constituency 1 and Etsako Central seats in the State House of Assembly during which Oshiomhole, who has perfected the art of deception through his “one man, one vote” slogan, deployed the force of intimidation and/or coercion of government machinery to manipulate the voting/election in favour of the AC.
That was a foul means. The orchestrated confusion on the floor of the State House of Assembly, which resulted in the unconstitutional removal of Garuba as speaker, was yet another. The claim by the AC that bombs were planted on the premises of the State House of Assembly and the Edo State Broadcasting Services (EBS) was an outlandish propaganda.
The House of Representatives condemned the aberration that manifested in the emergence of Omokhodion as Speaker and passed a resolution that steps should be taken to return the state legislature and the three Local Government Areas whose chairmen were illegally suspended to the status quo.
He spurned the resolution of the House of Representatives. He threw bile at the House and its leadership because the resolution was against his unconstitutional actions. Whereas, when the first move by the House Leader, Hon. Tunde Akogun (from Edo State) to introduce the motion suffered a set-back, the same Oshiomhole praised the House of Representatives to high heavens.
Oshiomhole has a strange attitude: he wants to be adjudged right all the time even when he is evidently wrong. Suffice it to say that he is intolerant of criticisms; he is disposed to adulation. But he can only have a surfeit of hero worship in Edo State where he has become an emperor of sort even when he is encouraging impunity.
However, beyond Edo State, there are voices of reason speaking against Oshiomhole’s culture of unconstitutionality for political mileage. The latest was from Makurdi where the Conference of Speakers made it clear to Omokhodion that his speakership was illegal and encumbered; and, therefore, he had to be excused out of the speakers’ meeting
Asemota contributed this piece from Benin City