Edo Assembly Speaker impeached

The Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Francis Okiye, was on Monday impeached.

Okiye was impeached on Monday morning after the Majority Leader of the House moved a motion for his removal.

Nine out of the 10 members of the Assembly, who were present at a brief sitting of the lawmakers signed Okiye’s impeachment letter.

The former speaker was immediately replaced by Marcus Onobun, a member representing Esan West State constituency as the new speaker.

The brief plenary was presided over by the deputy speaker, Roland Asoro.

After Onobun was selected as the assembly’s new speaker, he dissolved all the House standing committees and also relieved all the appointees of the house of their appointments.

He equally constituted a three-man committee to probe the financial records of the house under the leadership of the former speaker.

Read also: EDO ASSEMBLY CRISIS: Court awards N2.52m damages against police for ‘illegal’ detention

The former speaker was also placed under three months suspension to give room for a smooth transition.

No reason was immediately given on why the former speaker was sacked.

The development has only worsened the crisis rocking the state assembly.

Since its inauguration on June 17, 2019, the state assembly has been enmeshed with crisis after 14 out of the 24 lawmakers-elect were not inaugurated by the State Governor Godwin Obaseki under controversial circumstance.

Efforts by the 14 lawmakers-elect, believed to be loyal to a former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, to have the governor issue a fresh proclamation for the inauguration of the assembly failed, following a ruling of a Federal High Court in Rivers State that barred Governor Obaseki from doing so.

The 14 lawmakers, in the run up to the last governorship election in the state, attempted to have themselves inaugurated but were stopped by a sudden renovation of the assembly.

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