Edo Assembly crisis: PDP asks INEC to withdraw certificates of return of 14 APC members-elect
Following the protracted crisis within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked that the certificates of return for 14 members-elect in the state House of Assembly whose seats were recently declared vacant by the leadership of the statehouse of Assembly be withdrawn.
The opposition PDP asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificates of return of the members-elect over their alleged refusal to be inaugurated and take the Oath of Membership/Allegiance.
The PDP said the absence of the members-elect throughout the First Session and First Quarters of the 7th Assembly of Edo State amounted to an abdication of office.
The party in a letter to the INEC chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, to withdraw the certificates of the affected members-elect, saying that they have failed to perform the duties they were elected for.
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The letter addressed to the INEC chairman was signed by Chikaodinaka Adindu on behalf of the PDP and its candidates for the House of Assembly election.
The party urged INEC to withdraw the certificates of return and give them to the first runners up in the concluded elections, threatening to drag the electoral body to court if it fails to grant its request within seven days.
Recall that the Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Francis Okiye, had declared 14 seats of the alleged absentees vacant.
Okiye subsequently asked INEC to conduct bye-elections for the affected constituencies within 90 days. The 14 seats are those of the 12 members-elect who are yet to be inaugurated and two who allegedly stopped going to the state assembly after being inaugurated.
The PDP, however, kicked against the call for fresh elections into the constituencies by Okiye, saying the certificates should be withdrawn and given to the first runners up instead of wasting money to conduct another election.
