- They’re day-dreamers, Gov boasts
By Osemwengie Ben-Ogbemudia, Benin
The lingering personality clash between the Edo State governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, and his political godfather, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has finally grounded governance in the state, following the governor’s inauguration of a 10-member House of Assembly that swiftly picked its Speaker, Frank Okiye, in the absence of 14 others.
The governor, however, may have stepped on the cobra’s tail by his action, as informed sources revealed to The Point at the weekend that all was set by the House of Representatives to commence impeachment procedures against him.
“Since the Constitution allows the House of Reps to take over the functions of a state’s House of Assembly under this circumstance, and since one of such functions is to impeach a governor that contravenes the rule of governance, the law or the Constitution, Obaseki is as good as gone,” the source at the National Assembly, who wanted his name under wraps, told our correspondent.
Oshiomhole, currently the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, is the immediate past governor of the state, who helped secure victory for Obaseki, his political godson.
Already, the business of governance in the state, according to The Point’s investigations, have been grounded as neither the state’s Assembly has been able to sit, as the ad-hoc committee set up by the House of Reps to investigate the Edo logjam has refused to recognise the pro-Obaseki, 10-man House of Assembly.
Investigations also revealed that the refusal of the clerk of the Edo House of Assembly, Mr. Yahaya Omogbai, to transmit a letter inviting the remaining pro-Oshiomhole 14 lawmakers to come for inauguration, might be a deliberate joker from the governor, to frustrate any attempt to impeach him,.
While the Oshiomhole camp is accusing the governor of playing Judas, saying he betrayed the interests of the former governor, the governor’s men are equally saying Oshiomhole wanted absolute control over the governor, and as such, had wanted to turn him to a puppet.
EXPERTS’ APPRAISAL
Appraising the raging crisis, a veteran journalist and chieftain of opposition Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Mr. Nosa Omorodion, said, “Imbroglio is the classical definition of the present situation of the Edo State House of Assembly, and its resolution can only be imagined against varied expectations. The die is cast and there can never be an end to the flow of bad blood already generated. The stakes are too high and the suspicions too profound.”
Omorodion said while the supporters of Oshiomhole and Obaseki had tried to outwit one another in the court of public opinion, they had also inadvertently or advertently refused to absorb the import of the conundrum which Edo had been brought into.
“The lever of course is the Clerk of the House of Assembly whose role in the drama should point the way to an accurate conclusion about matter, without prejudice to the originating fears.”
According to him, “Understanding the powers and the limitations of the Clerk who functions as the transitory head of the parliamentary institution would help to define the status of the present Edo State House of Assembly which until a judicial intervention, vacillates between identities of existence and inexistence.
“A new session of any parliament in Nigeria (whether state or national) can only come into being when the Clerk, upon the receipt of a letter of proclamation from the governor or the president, as the case may be, duly notifies and invites all members-elect that have been given a valid certificate of return by the recognised electoral body, to an inauguration ceremony on a specified day, time and venue, which shall be the chambers of the parliament.
“The clerk, therefore, plays the pivotal role in birthing a new assembly based on the rule as I have specified,” Omorodion clarified.
He said it was the responsibility of the clerk to convening to prepare the state’s seventh House of Assembly for an inauguration ceremony fixed for a certain day and a certain commencement time known to all participants concerned.
“Furthermore, it was incumbent on him upon an inviolable duty to invite all members-elect (24 in number), insofar as they had a certificate of return, to the inauguration ceremony.
“Anything short of or in excess of this is definitely outside the powers of the clerk. In the same vein, for any aberrant conduct which tends to put the integrity of the exercise in doubt, the clerk must be held accountable and the outcome, subjected to the integrity test.”
Omorodion noted that though Oshiomhole and Obaseki are currently at loggerheads, it is the responsibility of the speaker to discharge his duties by ensuring the process leading to the inauguration of the Assembly is followed.
“According to the clerk who to me appears to be under a spell (as his conduct suggests), upon receipt of the Governor Godwin Obaseki’s Letter of Proclamation, he (the clerk) should have invited the 24 elected members, and not only 10 whom he said had completed their documentation with the House Services Commission.
“He said he did not invite the others because they had not completed the filing of their Code of Conduct forms. What the clerk meant was that he screened the members-elect for eligibility with the processing the Code of Conduct form as a requirement for inauguration.
“This brings us to ask the question: does the clerk of the House of Assembly have the power to screen members-elect to consider them qualified for inauguration beyond taking note that they possess a certificate of return duly awarded by INEC? Definitely not!”
However, the clerk of the Edo House of Assembly may have also been enameled by a supposed ruling of a Federal High Court restraining the IG of Police and the DG of DSS from enforcing the resolution of the House of Reps to make the latter assume the function of the Edo House and help it to normalize things.
But in own reaction, another analyst, Mr. Felix Osemwengie Isere, a lawyer, said politics aside, the Federal High Court in Benin did not actually restrain the Inspector General of Police or the Director General of Department of State Service from enforcing the resolution of the House of Representatives, stressing that the House of Representatives was not even a party to that action.
“It is a trite principle of law that nobody can be bound by any decision of a court when the person was not joined as a party.
“Without prejudice, even if the NASS was joined as a party, the interim order would not have stood because it has been held in plethora of authorities that though our Constitution provides for checks and balances, one organ of government still does not have the power to interfere in the lawful duty of another organ.
“The NASS, under Section 11(4) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has the legislative power to take over the responsibilities of the State Houses of Assembly; therefore, they should not be seen as busybodies or meddlesome interlopers. Their resolution was valid and done for the public interest, and the protection of our democracy,” he clarified, even as he stressed that “public interest supersedes an individual’s interest.”
Shedding more light on the imbroglio, Isere said, “Furthermore, the police and the DSS have a constitutional duty to safeguard lives and property; they cannot because of an interim order from the court allow for a breach of law and order in our state. If there was no security threat in the House of Assembly, what have the policemen surrounding the House of Assembly premises been doing there? Have they been selling akara (bean cake) around Anthony Enahoro Complex?”
He stressed further: “The purported order of the Federal High Court is even an interim order and not an interlocutory order; it was made without recourse to Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution, particularly the principle of Audi alteram Partem.
If the Frank Okiye faction (deemed as loyal to Obaseki) feels the DSS, police and even the NASS have disobeyed any order of the court, they should initiate contempt proceedings against them and stop trying to play politics with serious constitutional matters. He that seeks equity must come with clean hands and he that seeks equity must do equity.”
POLICE, DSS NOW ‘SAFEGUARD’ HOUSE
Meanwhile, the IGP and the DG, DSS may have complied with the order of the House of Representatives as fierce-looking, anti-riot security officers were seen at the Enahoro Assembly complex, providing security.
The House of Assembly has been sealed off by the security operatives. Recall that Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas Ad-Hoc Committee had interactions with all relevant parties in the crisis, including the state governor, the deputy governor, members-elect of the House of Assembly, the Oba of Benin, among others.
Also, some persons, including members of civil society groups, staged series of protests against the decision of the National Assembly, recently.
The embattled Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Mr. Frank Okiye, has also dared the National Assembly’s resolutions, saying, “It’s unfortunate that the House of Representatives is seen to be promoting violence and exacerbating the tension in the country.”
Okiye said this in a statement he issued in Benin City last week following reports of an order by the House of Representatives to seal off the Edo House of Assembly.
Okiye said: “It has come to our knowledge that the Ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives investigating issues surrounding the inauguration of the Edo State House of Assembly has recommended that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Department of State Services (DSS) should seal off the Edo Assembly.”
Okiye who doubted the integrity of the National Assembly, said, “Considering what we came to know in the course of this process, the recommendation of the Ad-Hoc committee does not come to us as a surprise.”
Okiye maintained that “With all these, it was clear that the ad-hoc committee was up to no good. Their report was always going to be biased.
“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is seen to be promoting violence and exacerbating the tension in the country.”
In his reaction, a former Commissioner for Education in Edo State and a chieftain of APC, Hon. Gideon Obhakhan, said the House of Representatives Committee on Edo State House of Assembly crisis had taken the right decision.
In his view, their decision requesting Obaseki to issue a fresh proclamation letter is very apt. It is coming at a time when Governor Obaseki has dragged the good name that had been built for Edo State over the years, through the mud with illegal and nocturnal inauguration of the House, Obhakhan said.
“With this decision, Edo People’s Movement has been vindicated and the good people of Edo State have now seen that we have been on the path of truth from the beginning. We now again use this opportunity to call all right-thinking people of Edo State to join hands to ensure that Godwin Obaseki is shown the way out of Osadebey avenue come November, 2020.
“As for Frank Okiye, who has unfortunately been the victim in this whole saga, I genuinely pity him because of the part of our history book where future generation will find his name. However, I’d like to state categorically that Okiye’s voice rejecting the decision of the House committee is comfortably drowned by the voices of the supporters of truth and whatever he is saying now is nothing more than the ranting of a drowning man. He should take the path of honour and bow to the voices of reason,” Obhakhan further condemned.
OBASEKI GETS ULTIMATUM
Meanwhile, the House of Reps ad-hoc committee investigating issues surrounding the inauguration of Edo State House of Assembly at the weekend hit hard, giving Obaseki one week to issue a fresh proclamation for the reconstitution of the House in deference to Section 105 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
In addition, the ad-hoc committee said Obaseki must publish the date, time and venue in a national daily or television station for the fresh inauguration, urging all members to dissolve their factions to enable peace and stability reign in the state.
As such, the Reps committee declared as null and void, all decisions taken by the seventh Assembly, pending its “proper inauguration” by the governor. This has no doubt pitched Obaseki against strong federal forces, the tide against which he may not be able to swim, observers contend.
Besides, the House Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, is expected to receive the report of the committee this week, a scenario that political experts and legal analysts say can lead to the impeachment of Obaseki, any moment hence.
GOVERNOR ADAMANT
But Obaseki, apparently miffed at the sealing off of the House of Assembly and the foreboding of an impeachment procedure by the House of Representatives, has fired back, saying the federal lawmakers erred
in law.
In a statement on his behalf by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Osarodion Ogie, the governor stated, “There is nowhere in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, where the House of Representatives or even the National Assembly for that matter, is granted the right or power to shut down a state House of Assembly.”
The governor also sneered at the directive that he should do a fresh inauguration for the Edo lawmakers, saying, “These powers (possessed by the House of Reps) certainly do not extend to issuing directives to a duly elected state governor to unlawfully repeat an act which had already been fully carried out in line with the constitution. Obaseki said he was unfazed in any way, daring the federal lawmakers, the police and the DSS to do their worse.
