The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Imo State has washed its hands off a letter allegedly written by it and transmitted to the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt Hon. Acho Ihim allegedly stripping the party’s principal officers in the House of their positions and appointing new officers for the party in their stead.
Chairman of the Caretaker Committee of the party in the state, Barr Vitalis Okafor who disowned the letter Wednesday, in a telephone interview with the Nigeria Newspoint disclosed that the committee never wrote nor transmitted such a letter, stressing, that the leadership of the party could not have taken such action when there was no condition warranting such as the party was satisfied with the leadership as presently constituted.
Barr. Okafor wondered where the letter would have emanated from, as it was neither signed by him nor the secretary, noting however, that in the politics of the country anything and everything were possible pointing that the party would thoroughly investigate the matter to uncover the truth.
He insisted that the party recognized the leadership of the party in the House led by Hon. Obinna Egu as minority leader and Hon. Mike Iheanetu as Chief Whip stressing that, any other arrangement was illegal, void and of no effect.
The Speaker of the State House of Assembly Rt Hon. Acho Ihim had on Wednesday almost thrown the House into a rowdy session when he announced the suspension of three members of the House namely, Hon. Obinna Egu, minority leader and member representing Ngor Okpala State Constiituency, Hon. Lawman Duruji, representing Ehime Mbano State Constituency and Hon. Ngozi Obiefule for Isu State Constituency allegedly on the ground that they were plotting to remove him.
The Speaker had slammed the suspension order after reading a letter purportedly forwarded to his office by the PDP seeking to effect a change to the leadership structure of the party in the House, an action which apparently did not go down well with members of the House, leading to the raising of point of order by the member for Ehime Mbano State Constituency, Hon Lawman Duruji, an action which instantly incurred the wrath of the speaker, who promptly suspended him. He followed suit with the suspension of the minority leader and Hon. Ngozi Obiefule.
A member of the House who spoke to Nigeria Newspoint on condition of strict anonymity described the speaker’s action as a “legislative coup” and rascality taken too far, saying the action would expose the House to ridicule within and outside the state. He pointed out that as a ranking member, the speaker was supposed to have the House rules at his fingertips.
According to him, procedurally, the letter read by the speaker was supposed to emanate from the office of the minority leader, while the suspended members should have been given a fair hearing by referring them to the Ethics and Privileges Committee or, a disciplinary committee to look into their matter and make recommendations.
He also faulted the slamming of indefinite suspension on them as Federal High Court in Abuja presided by Justice Adamu had on December 1, 2010 in the matter between Dino Melaye and Speaker, Demeji Bankole ruled that a legislative head has no powers to suspend a lawmaker beyond 14 legislative days because doing that would make his people lose representation.
Sources close to the assembly revealed that the speaker placed the cart before the horse by not being patient enough to exploit all avenues offered him by the constitution and the House Rules in dealing with such sensitive matter, stressing that such hasty decisions usually crumble when subjected to critical judicial interrogation.
He added that, the suspended lawmakers deserved such treatment because of such as granted them under House Members Personal Privilege Order 15(1) and the constitution of Nigeria, 1999, as amended pointing out, that speaker’s announcement that a disciplinary committee would be set up when the House on April 28,2016, exposed his motive for slamming the trio with indefinite suspension.
Meanwhile, Hon. Ken Agbim who emerged the new minority leader, justified his emergence in an interview with Nigeria Newspoint saying, members of the PDP in the House have a right to change their leadership if dissatistisfied with their conduct.
He admitted that the letter emanated from the party members in the House, stressing that their action was not out of order.
When contacted, Hon. Egu declined comments saying the matter was an internal matter which would be settled in-house.
Newspoint
