Edo House Crisis, Legislative Infamy -Obahiagbon
By Salimot Raji
Chief of Staff to the Edo State Government, Patrick Obahiagbon, on Wednesday described the purported move by minority members of the Edo State House of Assembly to impeach the speaker, as a cabaret show having all the trappings of Legislative infamy.
He condemned the act, saying “it is a show of shame and ignominy that should not be condoned by all”.
Obahiagbon said, the members that had declared to the world that they had impeached the speaker of the House and some members lacked the power to do so.
“It is show of shame and it is not something that should be condoned by all compose mentis homo sapiens in this time and age,” he said
The Chief of Staff said that the decision of the House members to suspend the members that had conducted themselves in a manner that amounted to misconduct was justifiable.
“Valid proceedings in law. Total compliance with the rules of the floor of the house.
“A day after, some nine honourable members proceeded to the floor of the State House of Assembly in a manner of misconduct, purportedly sold the idea to the world that they had impeached the speaker. As at the time these nine members proceeded to maroon themselves, four of them were on suspension and it means they were complete strangers, which vitiated their show of shenanigans,” he said.
Obahiagbon added that the act showed that Nigerian politicians had “learnt nothing and had forgotten nothing, stressing that politics should not be characterised by political jobbery, political violence, antedulivian proclivity.
“So long as the ‘primus mobilo’ of the Nigerian political class is driven by stomach democracy and bread and butter politics, we shall continue to gyrate in this vicious circle of political ‘econo-classicism’.
He was of the opinion while concluding that the only right thing for the suspended lawmakers to have done was to seek redress in court.
