Adjoto, new Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly

Traditional rulers in Edo-North and Edo-Central Senatorial Districts have urged lawmakers in the Edo State House of Assembly to return to status quo by ensuring that a lawmaker from Edo-Central senatorial district is made Speaker, for fairness and equity.

They made the call at a meeting between Edo-North traditional rulers and their counterparts from Edo-Central, held at Auchi, headquarters of Estako-West Local Government Council on Wednesday.

Hon. Justin Okonoboh, the Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, was on Aug. 14 impeached and replaced with Hon. Kabiru Adjoto.

The Otaru of Auchi, Alhaji H.A. Momoh, who addressed journalists at the end of the meeting, said they supported the comments of the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewaure II, who described the action of the lawmakers as an act of barbarism and hooliganism.

The Otaru noted that the power balancing factor in the state has been displaced with the removal of Okonoboh as Speaker.

“We are meeting the Oba. We will send a delegation to the Benin Monarch to inform him that we support his comments as regards what happened at the Edo State House of Assembly.

“We feel that equity and justice must prevail. Edo-Central must have somebody who should be the Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly.

“We are going to see what we can do to bring justice to the state over that matter. A balancing factor has to be made, which was in place under the existing arrangement.

“That has been displaced and it is not a good thing for us if we have to navigate justice,’’ he said.

On the call for the restructuring of the country, the Otaru stated that the traditional rulers resolved that Nigeria does not need restructuring, but justice and restructuring of the heart.

He said there would no clamour for restructuring if every Nigerian was treated equally.

“We felt that restructuring is nothing to do other than justice. Justice has no boundaries. Everybody has to be treated equally.

“We appeal that everybody has to restructure their heart to do the good thing.

“Restructuring is not the problem of this country but the restructuring of our hearts to the belief that we all belong to one nation.

“If we have good roads, water, railways, nobody will be talking about restructuring because the poor and the rich will have an environment that provides for all.

“The structure of wages and salaries is lopsided. We feel that the salaries at the top should reduce and at the bottom should rise. There should be a living wage for the low income earners,’’ he said.

(NAN)