The inauguration of the Edo State House Assembly failed to hold on Monday following Governor Godwin Obaseki’s delay in transmitting a letter of proclamation to the clerk of the Assembly.
This is even as a combined team of security personnel made up of the police and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) laid siege to the premises of the Assembly complex.
Supporters and relations of elected lawmakers who had turned up to witness the inauguration were turned back by the security personnel who also locked up the main entrance and two exit gates of the complex, thereby preventing members of staff from gaining access to the complex with their vehicles.
DAILY POST reports that the 24 lawmakers elected to the Edo Assembly are members of the All Progressives Congress (APC). However, only eight lawmakers were re-elected to the 7th Assembly while 16 new lawmakers are to be inaugurated.
The 6th Assembly ended last week with the former Speaker, Hon Kabiru Adjoto adjourning sitting sine die.
Some lawmakers-elect to the 7th Assembly had expressed reservations over the date fixed for their inauguration.
Reacting to the failure to inaugurate the Edo Assembly, the State Secretary of the APC, Mr. Lawrence Okah, told journalists, “The Edo State House of Assembly is waiting for a letter of proclamation from Governor Obaseki as instituted in the law.”
Meanwhile, a top government official said the there was no breach of the law in the governor’s action.
“Is there a law that says it must be on a particular day? They should go and read the constitution. Did it say every state must inaugurate its assembly the same day. That is not the position. It is when the governor writes and proclaim it that it is inaugurated and it is only the governor that can do it. Our own will either be Friday or Monday,” he told Nation newspaper.
