By Jethro Ibileke
The Deputy Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Hon. Yekini Idiaye, was impeached on Wednesday for pledging loyalty to the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress, Pastor Osagie Ize- Iyamu, it has been gathered.
He was impeached on Wednesday during plenary by seven members of the House.
Speaker of the Assembly, Frank Okiye, said Idiaye was impeached over misconduct and revealing secret information of the Assembly.
It was however gathered that he was actually impeached for pledging loyalty for the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.
The member representing Orhionmwon Constituency ll, Roland Asoro, was immediately elected Deputy Speaker.
It would be recalled that Idiaye had on Monday, August 3, pledged loyalty and support to Ize-Iyamu.
The Speaker also alleged that the impeached deputy speaker has been working with Governor Hope Uzodima of Imo state and stakeholders of the APC in the state, to import a fake mace to with a view to forcefully take over the Assembly.
“The state’s polity is already heated by the high political tension from the electioneering campaigns. Their planned action is akin to lighting a match in an already tensed political environment, which conflagration is capable of causing crisis in the state, and of a scale beyond our imagination.
“We call on Edo people whose mandate and interests the state’s legislature holds and protects, to rise against this planned attack and plot to subvert their will and subjugate them, using external forces.
“We urge lovers of democracy across the world, institutions that uphold democratic tenets and values, pro-democracy groups, to denounce this planned illegality that seeks to seek to distract a duly constituted authority.
“We recognise the constitutional right of the three members of the House of Assembly to support the candidate of their choice, but that should not distract them from coming to work to carry out the job they were elected for,” he said.
Okiye said he and his colleagues remain committed to the protection of the democratic rights of Edo people, noting that legislature remains a sacred institution in the democratisation process.
When contacted for reaction, the Commissioner for Special Projects of Imo State, Mr. Simon Ebegbulem, said: “The illegal Speaker and his governor are not making sense to me with this baseless allegation. I don’t even know what they are talking about because there is no House of Assembly in Edo state. I think that is why the so-called Speaker is running away from his shadow like a criminal that will always run once he sees a law enforcement agent.
“However, I don’t know why he should draw the leg of His Excellency, Governor Hope Uzodinma into his political problems. My Governor is interested in working with other APC governors and stakeholders to reclaim Edo State which has been an APC state before Governor Obaseki donated it to the PDP.
“The illegal Speaker and his principal are already jittery because of the imminent defeat in the coming election. You can see that his aides are resigning everyday including his Deputy Speaker. Now he is left with five lawmakers and does that show that he is in charge?”
Photo: