Anambra Assembly members drag court, Obiano, CP into plan to impeach speaker

Supposed new Speaker of the Anambra State House of Assembly, Ikem Uzoezie, and other lawmakers loyal to him have dragged the state Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr. Garba Umar, and the state Governor Willie Obiano, to court over the sealing off of the Assembly complex.

About 20 out the 30 members of the House had on November 13, impeached Speaker Rita Maduagwu and supposedly selected Uzoezie as the new Speaker.

Maduagwu had immediately rejected her impeachment and described it as an illegality, vowing that it was never going to stand.

Following the crisis in the House, the Police have laid siege on the Assembly complex since November 13.

But Uzoezie, who spoke to newsmen on Sunday, insisted that Maduagwu remained impeached and that nothing was going to change that.

He added that the suit his faction instituted against the state Police CP and Governor Obiano over the sealing off of the Assembly Complex was going to commence on Monday (today).

“The police are well aware that what they are doing is illegal. We’ve drawn the attention of the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris and the Anambra CP to the Legislative Activities Act 2017 that was assented to by the President, Muhammadu Buhari, telling them that their action is unconstitutional.

“Their action is an attack on the institution of democracy and there is a jail term to it if they so persist to seal the complex.

READ ALSO: 2019: Ezekwesili takes presidential campaign to the streets

“By Monday (today), our processes will be in court. We have briefed our lawyers on what to do. On Monday, both the Police and the executive will meet us in court.

“We only require basic police presence to safeguard government property and not sealing off of our premises and restricting our members and staff of the House from having access to their offices and workplaces which we find so disheartening at this point in time,” he said.

According to Uzoezie, his group had already written to the National Assembly to draw its attention to the police action in Anambra.

He said they are hopeful federal lawmakers would intervene and stop the invasion of the state assembly.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now