It seems that the forthcoming governorship election in Edo is unfolding a lot of drama in the state from both the executive and legislative arms.
Just one day after some policemen took over the state House of Assembly, its speaker, Victor Edoror, has ordered the closure of all accounts of the legislative body, The Nation reports.
Edoror, who is the new speaker of the House, gave the order at his first sitting in Benin City, the state capital, on Friday, August 7.
Giving the directive on Friday, Edoror made it plain that the House will not tolerate any interference from the executive arm of the state government.
Meanwhile, massive political re-alignments were underway as the Edo governorship election drew nearer, especially among the major parties participating in the poll.
The state’s House of Assembly’s deputy speaker Yekini Idiaye had declared his support for the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.
Four other lawmakers on the state assembly had pitched their political tent with Ize-Iyamu.
It was gathered that the lawmakers said their decision is to remain in the APC on whose platform they were elected.
The lawmakers refused to join Governor Godwin Obaseki in his new party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). They also accused the governor of making the legislature in the state irrelevant and unable to perform its functions as enshrined in the constitution.
Reacting to the development via his Twitter handle, Ize-Iyamu said: “This makes it a total number of 17 elected members of the Edo Assembly, out of 24, who have announced their support for our party and will be mobilizing their constituencies to vote the APC.
“I commend them for their integrity and courage and for standing up to a Governor who, in a brazen act of tyranny, ignored the resolution of both arms of the National Assembly, and denied representation to 14 constituencies by locking the door of the House to their elected reps.”
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