Proclamation: Edo Assembly Members-Elect Deserve What They Got — Okiye

Edo State House of Assembly has disclosed that the 14 Members-elect whose seats were declared vacant by the house are reaping the consequences of their disobedience to lawful authority.
Speaker of the Assembly, Rt. Hon. Frank Okiye, stated this while addressing the Media in Benin City, the Edo State Capital where he explained that the House under his watch acted within the provisions of the law.
He said decision of the 14 All Progressives Congress (APC) Members-elect to listen to alternative voice instead of the voice of Governor Godwin Obaseki who is empowered by the Constitution to issue proclamation letter to inaugurate the 7th Assembly on June 17, 2019, was an error.
“The crisis that snowballed into the House of Assembly first started when Members-elect deliberately felt that there must be an alternative voice rather than that one by the State governor who is Constitutionally empowered to issue proclamation.
“They believe that somebody must tell them first whether to do or not to do. These are clear discerning clarifications.
“For us, we have taken decision to follow the line and our eyes are targeted on the ball and service delivery to the people of Edo State the reasons why we were elected to be here”, he said.
He accused the embattled national chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of playing the ostrich by attempting to re-event godfatherism which he had abolished during his tenure as governor of the State.
According to him, “history reminds us that the voyage of Godfatherism was declared sacrilegious and laid to rest in Edo State by the former administration of Adams Oshiomhole. And we want to thank God that it will never be resurrected again under any guise.
“The debilitating controversy that has engulfed the polity and in particular, Edo State APC actually predated the proclamation of the House of Assembly by the Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki in the current legislative session.
“If not for our brothers that are today victims of power control quest, we would have waited for another or an alternative proclamation of a signal from another quarter even after the Governor had done so.
“Our brothers got involved in a wrong move. It is important to make it clear that the problems created which was an avoidable one bothers on the inordinate expedition to dictate the political affairs of the State at the expense of the number one man who is still the Governor and leader of our (APC) in the State.
“Recall that almost all the actors in this crisis have alluded differently to the same fact that there were issues in that 2019 elections. And it should also be noted that the failure of the national Chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomhole to campaign with local chapter of the party even for the Presidential election signalled a very wrong premise abinitio.
“Secondly, you will recall that the primary election that produced the current House of Assembly Candidates was severely treated by the inordinate interest and it was however the grace of God that stopped these desperate politicians from sliding into a monumental crisis. Like it happened in other States.
“If God was not with us during our House of Assembly election, what happened in Rivers and Zamfara States would have replay itself in Edo State.
“Thereafter, members of the House of Assembly became divided as soon as actors in the crisis took position. The Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole had in the past affirmed to these concern by their respective utterances in the past.
“Obaseki has tried to avoid these political distractions that was foist on our party by some political rulers and dealers. It is therefore pertinent in unequivocal terms that it’s wrong for anyone to accuse the Governor of inducing crisis in APC.
“It is painful that some people are still using the crisis to distract him from the good work that he is doing. But, they will never succeed.
“The interest of Edo State should be allowed to prevail at every point. The people who elected us into various positions and the mandates they gave us must be held sacrosanct.
“We must equally reckon with the sad truth that the time and opportunities lost in these political disagreements and the obvious failure of our brothers to give their Constituencies a mandated representation can never be recovered again.
“It is a great disservice to their Constituencies”, he added.