Some men on Thursday vandalised
the Edo State House of Assembly and removed its roof.
According to a video shared by
Channels Television, the men were seen removing the iconic legislative mace on
top of the building.
The video also showed trucks
offloading gravels at the entrance of the Assembly Complex while the suspected
vandals trooped into the building.
NigerianEye earlier reported
that policemen on Thursday surrounded the Assembly complex in Benin City, the
state capital.
This is coming barely 24 hours
after the Deputy Speaker, Yekini Idiaye, was impeached by the state lawmakers.
The member representing
Orhionmwon-South constituency, Roland Asoro, has since been appointed deputy
Speaker and was immediately administered the oath of office and oath of
allegiance by the Speaker.
It was gathered that the Police
action was in a bid to prevent an attack on the complex.
Apart from many security
officials that blocked entrance into the complex, patrol vehicles were also
stationed there.
But no security operative was seen
in the video shared by Channels Television.
One of our Correspondents
reported that Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, may have ordered the
“immediate renovation” of the state House of Assembly.
There was tension in the Assembly
on Thursday morning following the heavy presence of security agents.
Shortly after Obaseki and the
Speaker, Frank Okiye, addressed PDP supporters at the complex, it was learnt
that the governor ordered the heaping of sand at the front of the Edo State
House of Assembly complex.
Several artisans were also seen
removing the roof of the complex as of 3PM on Thursday.
Earlier, following Idiaye’s
impeachment on Wednesday, Speaker of the House, Frank Okiye, said Idiaye was
impeached because he allegedly planned with the leaders of the All Progressives
Congress and the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, “to illegally and violently
take over” the Assembly.
Idiaye and some lawmakers had on
Monday pledged their support for the APC governorship candidate, Osagie
Ize-Iyamu.
The Speaker, in an address aired via social media shortly
after the impeachment of Idiaye, called on the President, Major General
Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to call members of his party to order.
The speaker 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 three 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 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.”
With about six weeks to the September 19 governorship
election in Edo, the political atmosphere gets turbo-charged day after day.
Governor Godwin Obaseki, who is seeking reelection on the
platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, will face Ize-Iyamu of the APC, and
other political contenders.
Details soon…
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