The governorship election billed for September 19 in Edo State is indeed taking new dimension as political players and interest groups within the state have started plotting against each other.
What however came as a surprise is that, interest groups outside the state may have also joined in heating up the polity as allegations and counter allegations are made against each other by the two big parties, All People’s Congress (APC) and the state’s ruling party, People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Frank Okiye, alleged that the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma wants “to illegally and violently take over” the Edo State Assembly.
In an address he titled, ‘The Urgent Need To Call The Imo State Governor and Leaders Of APC In Edo State To Order Over Their Plan To Violently And Illegally Takeover The Edo State House Of Assembly’, he said
“We have it on good authority, the dubious plans by the governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, and the stakeholders of APC in Edo State to import a fake maze to take over the Edo State House of Assembly working in cohort with the former deputy speaker who recently declared his support for the governorship candidate of APC to congregate in a separate location to illegally and violently take over the Edo State House of Assembly as brought to our notice.
“And so, we call on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari and the presidency to urgently call this governor and others working with him to execute this illegal plan to desist and allow the laws of the state to guide them.
“The state polity is already heated up by the political tension from the various electioneering campaign. Their planned action is likened to lightening a match in an already tensed political environment which conflagration is capable of causing crisis in the state and may scale beyond imagination.
“We call on Edo State people, whose mandate and interest the state legislature holds and protect, to rise against this attack and plot to subvert their will and subjugate them using external forces.
“We urge lovers of democracy across the world and institutions that uphold democracy and value, as well as pro-democracy groups to denounce this planned illegality that seems to distract a duly constituted authority.
“We recognize the constitutional rights of the members of the Assembly to support the candidate of their choice but that should not distract them from coming to work to carry out the job for which they were elected and become an agent of mutiny agaact them from coming to work to carry out the job for which they were elected and become an agent of mutiny against their own primary constituencies.
“We are as always committed to protecting the democratic rights of our people as the legislature remains the sacred institution in the democratisation process signed by my honourable self on behalf of the Edo State House of Assembly.”
It was gathered that the move led to the impeachment of the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Yekini Idiaye who was immediately replaced with Hon. Roland Asoro, a member representing Orhionmwon II Constituency.
Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki who moved to the PDP is seeking re-election, while the former PDP chieftain, Pastor Ize Iyamu is the main contender under the APC.
