Speaker condemns attack on Edo Assembly by protesters

By Titus Akhigbe,Benin

Speaker of the Edo state House of Assembly, Kabiru Adjoto yesterday condemned the attack on the state House of Assembly by civil society groups during their protest on Thursday in Benin City.

The civil society groups who were protesting against a bill for a law to provide for electricity theft and other related offences‎, which is currently before the Assembly, had pelted the walls of the Assembly premises with tomatoes as well as defacing them with palm oil.

But, reacting to the action of the protesters at a press briefing yesterday, Adjoto alleged that they were sponsored by politicians.

“These people are sponsored and they have exceeded their limits,” he said and accused a member of the House, Chris Okaeben of allegedly being one of the sponsors of the protest, even as he threatened that the House would bring the violent protesters to book.

He explained that there was an existing‎ Act dealing with electricity theft which prescribes various imprisonment terms for offenders which the House was in the process of domesticating to suit the peculiar situation of Edo state, adding that if the civil society groups felt otherwise, they should have gone to court to challenge the bill. 

However, in a swift response to the Speaker’s allegation of sponsoring the protest, Chris Okaeben said it was quite unfortunate for the speaker to have linked him with the protest carried out by civil society organizations over what they tagged anti- people’s bill.

He said the same civil society groups have been accusing him of conniving with the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) to the detriment of the people of the state.

The lawmaker while wondering how the speaker came to associate him with the protest, added that‎ he was never a party to the bill and that he also questioned the speed at which the bill was passed into law by the state House of Assembly.