Edo HOS: 17 Lawmakers Profess To Have Impeached Assembly Speaker, Others

Fourteen members of the Edo State House of Assembly whose seats in the legislative chamber have earlier been declared vacant and three sitting lawmakers have averred to have impeached the Speaker of the House, Francis Okiye, and his deputy, Roland Asoro.

The decision in their claim was taken on Thursday at a private location in Benin City, the state capital, hours after security officials took over the State Assembly Complex.

The lawmakers say in their place they have elected Victor Edoror, who represents Esan Central Constituency, and Emmanuel Agbaje, who represents Akoko-Edo Constituency II as Speaker and Deputy Speaker, respectively.

At the meeting, the 14 lawmakers-elect were, first, sworn in and then, together with three other lawmakers who recently pledged their allegiance to Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) claimed to have impeached the Speaker and his deputy.

It would be recalled that the Edo State House of Assembly has been ensnared in multiple crisis since 2019, only worsened now by the buildup to the to the upcoming governorship elections in the state.

Twenty-four lawmakers were elected from the 24 constituencies during the 2019 general elections but only 10 of them were inaugurated on July 17 of the same year, generating a controversy that attracted intervention from the National Assembly.

Five out of the ten lawmakers that were inaugurated including the then Deputy Speaker, Yekini Idiaye, had declared support for Ize-Iyamu last week, after accusing Governor Godwin Obaseki of rendering the legislature in the state useless.

The lawmakers, before the end of the plenary, had issued a notice to the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police in Edo that they would be taking over the Assembly on Friday having taken over its leadership.