Reps give Obaseki 7 days to inaugurate Assembly or risk takeover

The House of Representatives on Wednesday warned Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State to inaugurate a fresh 7th Edo House of Assembly within one week or it will take over the functions of the Assembly.

The House threatened to take over the Asembly over the crisis rocking it in line with Section 11(4) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

This was the submission of the report of the Ad-hoc Committee on the need for Intervention in the Edo State House of Assembly crisis chaired by Rep. Abdulrazak Namdas (APC-Adamawa), which was submitted at the plenary on Wednesday.

The house, however, said it would not carry out the threat if Obaseki issued a fresh proclamation to inaugurate the Seventh Edo State House of Assembly within one week in line with Section 105(3) of the constitution.

The report also added that Obaseki should publish the date, time and venue of the inauguration in any national daily and television station.

The report also recommended that all actions already taken by the members of the current assembly should be declared null and void pending proper inauguration.

It also recommended that all members of the assembly, both those who had been inaugurated and those not yet inaugurated should dissolve their factions.

This, it stated, would be in the interest of peace and stability of the house with the view to moving the state forward.

The report also recommended that the Inspector General of Police and the Director-General, Department of State Service should shut down the State House of Assembly and provide adequate security.

The report said this would allay further fears of intimidation and threat as alleged by members-elect.
It said that where the recommendations failed, “the National Assembly should invoke the Provisions of Section 11(4) of the 1999 Constitution to take over the State House of Assembly until the situation normalises”.

A 13-member committee, on July 10, commenced investigations into the assembly crisis following a unanimous adoption of a motion under matters of urgent national importance by Rep. Julius Ihonvbere (APC-Edo).

Ihonvbere had expressed concern over the improper inauguration of the Seventh House of Assembly on June 17 and that nine out of the 24 elected members were sworn in without the knowledge of the other 15 members-elect.

Ihonvbere also alleged that the clerk of the house secretly inaugurated the nine members-elect at about 9.30p.m. which, according to him, was outside the time of legislative business.