Edo Assembly Crisis: PDP Lawmakers Recruit Sacked Staff as Clerk, Sergeant-at-Arms

Traditional ruler berates lawmakers over lawlessness

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
As the crisis rocking the Edo State House of Assembly deepens, indications have emerged that the nine Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers may have engaged the services of the two former staff of the state House of Assembly Service Commission (EDHASC) as the Sergeant-

at-Arms and Clerk of the assembly respectively.

THISDAY yesterday gathered that when the nine PDP lawmakers who broke into the hallowed chambers of the assembly complex at the Ring Road on Monday to hold their sitting, the two alleged dismissed staff of EDHASC were seen posing as the Sergeant-at-Arms and Clerk of the assembly respectively.

The allegedly dismissed staff are Omoregbe Osagie and Okoh Godwin.
The identification of the dismissed staff was contained in a statement signed by the Chairman of EDHASC, Emmanuel Oronsaye, in Benin City, the state capital yesterday.

Oronsaye, who gave the particulars of the dismissal letters of the officers as P.C.944/78 and P.C. 372/83, said the officers were dismissed in December 20, 2010, and February 16, 2011, respectively for certificate forgery.

According to him, “The attention of EDHASC has been drawn to the roles the two dismissed officers played at the purported sitting of the PDP legislators as Sergeant-at-Arms and Clerks- at-Table respectively on July 7,  at the Anthony Enahoro Complex, Ring Road, Benin City.

“Both officers whose names are, Omoregbee Osagie (a.k.a. Greg) and Okoh Godwin, were dismissed as per our letters nos. P.C. 944/78 of December 20, 2010 and P.C. 372/83 of February 16, 2011, for certificate forgery. It is to be emphasised that whosoever does business or any transaction with the aforementioned dismissed officers does so at his or her own risk.”

Meanwhile, at the sitting of All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers at the old assembly chamber, Government House in Benin City, Chief Whip of the assembly, Folly Ogedengbe, had also in his contribution to a motion on the matter of urgent public importance, said the factional PDP lawmakers’ recruited members of the PDP as sergeant-at-arms and clerk-at-table.

While alleging that PDP lawmaker bought uniform for the officers, he however, described the activities of the lawmakers in the assembly as nullity.

The assembly in a resolution under matter of urgent public importance suspended the PDP principal officers in the assembly for allegedly leading other lawmakers to hold a parallel plenary session in the assembly complex.
The suspended PDP principal officers in the assembly are Emma Okoduwa, Minority Leader, representing Esan North East 11 and Kingsley Ehigiamusor, Minority Whip, representing Igueben constituency.

Michael Ohio-Ezomo, representing Owan West in a motion on matter of urgent public importance, said the action of the PDP leaders in the assembly contravened Section 95 (subsection 1) and Section 99 of the Constitution (as amended).

Ohio-Ezomo alleged that the PDP leaders led other lawmakers including the suspended legislators to hold parallel sitting in the assembly, having been notified of the temporary relocation of the sitting to the old assembly chamber in Government House as a result of the ongoing renovation work in the assembly.

The assembly, however, summoned the Commissioner of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Lucky James, and his Health counterpart today to explain issues surrounding their various ministries.
This came as the PDP lawmakers in their plenary session, set up a three-man panel to investigate the alleged shoddy construction of the Urhonigbe road which was said to have created gully erosion in the area.

The erosion was said to have devastated some houses in the affected communities.
It also called on the relevant agencies to stop forthwith the construction of the ongoing renovation in the assembly.

However, the Uyi-Igbe-led assembly currently sitting at the Government House yesterday denied reports that it now sits at the governor’s office due to ongoing renovation of the assembly chamber at the Anthony Enahoro House, as false, mischievous and a coordinated assault on the legislative branch in the state by desperate anti-democratic forces.

In a statement made available to journalists and signed by the Speaker himself, the assembly said: “For the avoidance of doubt, the office of the Speaker wishes to inform the public that such reports are not only patently false and mischievous but another phase in what is now clearly a coordinated assault on the legislative arm in the state by desperate anti-democratic forces.
Their intention is to cast the legislative arm in bad light, thereby eroding its integrity in the eyes of the good people of the state.

“As a temporary measure, the state assembly has had to move its plenary to the old chamber of the legislature so that normal proceedings continue pending the completion of the repair of the hallowed chamber at the Anthony Enahoro House willfully vandalised last week by suspended Hon. Festus Ebea and his cohorts aided and abetted by some unpatriotic policemen. They had forcibly broken in, in fragrant disobedience of a valid court order restraining them from the precinct of the assembly.

“For those of us with a deep sense of history, sitting inside the old chamber in the past few days not only fills us with pride but also inspires in us a feeling of reunion with our past legislative heroes and heroines dating back to the Midwest, old Bendel State and later Edo State. We feel their illustrious spirits in this old chamber.

Meanwhile, the attitude of the lawmakers has drawn the irk of the Enogie of Obazuwa and Chairman, Benin Centenary Committee, Prince Edun Akenzua, who expressed shock that many of the lawmakers behind the crisis in the state assembly were lawyers who ought to know the provisions of the law.

Akenzua, who spoke to journalists in Benin City, on the return of two Benin bronze arte-facts by a Briton, Dr. Adrian Walker, also proffered solution to the crisis, saying: “I think what should be done is for the people to obey the law, no matter how bad it is. No matter how bad a law is, it should be obeyed until it is set aside.”

He also lamented the suffering of the people who he said daily find it difficult to access roads within the vicinity of the assembly complex as a result of the crisis, saying if the assembly was right in its decision to suspend four lawmakers, those suspended should obey, but if their suspension was wrong, they should seek redress in court and avoid fighting in public glare.

According to him, “the issues of governance are far more serious than the lawmakers are displaying. The lawmakers by their display have proved to Nigerians that they are not the right calibre of people to be in the assembly.

“What is happening in the assembly shows the typical Nigerianess or Africaness. When you have any election at all levels, no one goes peacefully, there is always palaver,” Akenzua said, observing that even the uneducated ones in the village will not fight the way the Edo lawmakers have been fighting.

On the return of the Benin arte-facts, the Enogie of Obazuwa thanked Walker whom he described as a gentleman and perfect specie of the human race and thanked Governor Adams Oshiomhole and the media for supporting the palace and the Benin people.

“Apart from the physical and unprecedented development he has brought to Benin, and to Edo State, it is in his (Oshiomhole) time now that our looted and priceless arte-facts are coming back,” he said.