Edo legislators-elect demand inauguration of assembly

By Titus Akhigbe, Benin

Nineteen out of the 24 members-elect of the Edo state House of Assembly on Monday accused the state Governor, Godwin Obaseki of attempting to truncate democracy.

The yet-to-be inaugurated lawmakers made the allegation in a statement while addressing journalists at the NUJ secretariat in Benin.

A former Commissioner for Education, Washinton Osifo, who read the statement on behalf of the protesting members-elect, noted that the tenure of the last assembly expired on June 7, 2019.

“Today, we members-elect of the Edo state House of Assembly wish to bring to the knowledge of the people of Edo state and the general public of the attempt by Gov. Obaseki to truncate democracy.

“The governor by virtue of section 105 (3) of the constitution is constitutionally required to immediately issue a letter of proclamation for the inauguration of the new assembly to avoid a vacuum,” Osifo said.

They lawmakers-elect noted that “there cannot be democracy without the legislature because it is the legislature that gives credence to democracy.”

They accused Gov. Obaseki of deliberately refusing to allow the House of Assembly to function, thus usurping the powers of the legislature, adding that
“it is also common knowledge that the governor, no matter how powerful, cannot impose individuals as speaker on legislators. At best, he can only lobby for his preferred candidates as was witnessed at the National Assembly.”

They therefore, called on the people of the state, including the Oba of Benin and the leadership of the APC to prevail on Obaseki “to immediately issue the letter of proclamation to enable the assembly function and to avoid a constitutional crisis.”

The state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Paul Ohonbamu, could not be reached on phone for his reaction.

However, the state Chairman of APC, Anslem Ojezua, said the leadership of the party has agreed on the composition of the assembly’s leadership, declaring that “I don’t see any constitutional crisis because we met only yesterday and we have agreed as a party on how the leadership of the assembly should be constituted.

“I expect that Mr. Governor will issue the proclamation anytime now. But, I don’t see any constitutional crisis at all. As you can see, everything is moving smoothly. There is no problem at the moment; no one has violated any section of the constitution. I don’t know what they are getting unduly anxious about.”