Edo/Bauchi: Obasa tackles Govs Obaseki, Mohammed for supplanting APC majority

The chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures in Nigeria has warned governors of Edo and Bauchi to immediately resolve the crises in the respective Houses of Assembly or the conference will not recognize the state speakers.

Rt Hon Mudashiru Obasa demanded a reversal of their proclamations of the Houses of Assembly in both states as well as the elections of principal officers.

His party National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole has also made a similar demand, which has led to a blow-up of the crisis between him and Edo Gov Godwin Obaseki who allegedly masterminded the election of Hon. Frank Okiye as Speaker .

The Lagos House of Assembly Speaker said the organisation cannot condone illegality—by which he meant how the governors went about the proclamations of  the eight assembles y subverting the rules of the Houses.

In the Edo state Assembly, nine members elected the principal officers in a 24-member House in an inauguration that allegedly held at 9:30 pm.

In Bauchi, 11 out of the 31 elected members of the ninth House of Assembly also elected principal officers in what Speaker Obasa described as “questionable manner.”

The Bauchi crises threw up two speakers in the state.

“A situation where a minority number in a State House of Assembly takes control of its activities over the majority is condemnable,” Obasa said in statement on Sunday.

According to him, no lover of democracy in the country should support the charade that happened recently at both Houses of Assembly.

“We must also all call on the governors to do the needful by reversing their actions and acting in accordance with the laws backing up the legislative arms of the affected states,” the Speaker said.

He argued that even though Section 92(1), Chapter V of the 1999 Constitution simply states that there shall be a Speaker and a Deputy Speaker of a House of Assembly who shall be elected by the members of the House from among themselves, Section 98(1 and 2) clearly stipulates that voting must be by simple majority.

Specifically, Section 98(2) states expressly: “Except as otherwise provided by this Constitution, the required majority for the purpose of determining any question shall be a simple majority.”