The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has said he cannot do anything to bring the 14 Edo All Progressives Congress lawmakers back to the assembly for inauguration.
He spoke on recently during a ‘Thank You’ visit to the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
According to Governor Obaseki, “We have a dissident group that people elected and refused to be inaugurated, they were not prevented. They were listening to their godfather who kept hoping and promising that he would unconstitutionally get the state House of Assembly to reissue a proclamation even after the court had settled the matter.
“For more than 180 days they did not come. They refused to represent the people. Those seats became vacant; that’s what the constitution says. They went to court after those were declared vacant by the Speaker. There is nothing I can do that at this time. I wish it didn’t happen but people were playing god and promising what is not constitutional.
“I’m not one that plant people into the house of assembly, they on their own operated the rules the way it should be, the seats are now vacant.
“Even if I wanted today to bring them back, I don’t have such powers.”
Meanwhile, he Edo State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Hon Tony Azegbiemi, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct by-election into 14 seats of the state House of Assembly which were declared vacant in December 2019 by the Speaker Rt. Hon. Francis Okiye.
Azegbiemi said the party would formally write INEC to conduct fresh elections as he said the people in the constituencies were being denied representation in the state House of Assembly.
“We are very worried because about a million people have lost their voices in the House of Assembly; their voices are not being heard, nobody is talking about them; nobody is representing their interests.
“We are worried about it because these are people that voted for the party, they voted for the governor in the last governorship election and we want them to be represented in the House of Assembly, and apart from the demand we are making now for INEC to commence the process, we are going to follow it up with a latter as a party. We are going to write INEC officially to carry out its constitutional responsibility by conducting election into this 14 constituencies,” he pointed out.
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