Edo Crisis: NASS May Take Over Edo Assembly – Reps

Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC) caucus of the House of Representatives, yesterday warned that should the Edo State House of Assembly lawmakers fail to carry out its legislative responsibility, the National Assembly may have no choice but to take over the House. This is just as the suspended deputy speaker, Hon Festus Ebea, at the weekend insisted that he remains the speaker of the House unless their suspension which he described as illegal is reversed. The nine PDP lawmakers had last Friday adjourned sitting till today while the 15 APC lawmakers adjourned to Wednesday. Speaking on behalf of the six House of Representatives members from Edo State that made up the caucus, the minority leader, Hon Samson Osagie, in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP in Benin captioned “Let there be Peace and Order”, expressed dismay at the flagrant disobedience to court orders by the PDP lawmakers and called on the law enforcement agents to enforce the court order as regards the crisis rocking Edo Assembly. They stated, “We have watched with mixed feelings the needless imbroglio among members of our (Edo) State House of Assembly culminating in the invitation of the courts to resolve the logjam. As lawmakers, ordinarily we should not be seen to be interfering in the affairs of the State Legislature especially when the courts have been called to intervene, but it has become imperative in the interest of peace and for the protection of the institution of the Legislature. to state as follows.” “That as Lawmakers we all owe the institution a duty not to bring it into disrepute by disobeying the rules of the parliament and all valid orders made by a court of competent jurisdiction when they are called to intervene in any matter involving the actions of the Legislature. “That we call on the members of Edo State House Of Assembly especiallythose against whom an order has been made to respect such orders nomatter how dissatisfied they are with such order or orders and exploremore legitimate or legal avenues to appeal or vacate such orders as itis trite Law that once an order is made by a court it must be obeyedby all concerned until it is set aside by a superior court or vacatedby the court which made the order .