Ben Ezechime, Enugu
The Enugu State Government has perfected clandestine moves to secretly inaugurate the 8th House of Assembly in the State.
The move by the government was in contravention of the current constitutional amendment which states that for any state assembly to be successfully inaugurated, no less than two third of the members of the Assembly must be present.
A credible source revealed that the Clerk of the House, Dr. Emma Udaya, had a meeting with Mr Peter Mbah with a view to hatching a secret module that will see the inauguration of 10 Members-elect of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while excluding the other 14 members-elect of the Labour Party extraction.
Our source who spoke in the condition of anonymity disclosed that the governor had asked the Clerk if there was any way through which the Assembly could be inaugurated so as to enable his PDP who are in the minority produce the principal officers without the Labour Party members-elect raising any objection.
In a bid to satisfy the governor, the Clerk was alleged to have assured the governor that there were ways to achieve the objective and that he could be trusted to do the job.
It was further learnt that the clerk suggested that a proclamation be made and date announced but with no time.
“With this gap in time, he plans to invite only the members elect of the PDP at an odd time and get them inaugurated in the absence of members elect of the Labour Party,” our source said.
To this end, our government House source said the Clerk had addressed all the workers to ensure that they report to duty whenever they are invited to do so not minding the time of day.
Further to this plot, the Clerk had allegedly relieved the Sergeant at Arms of his duty.
The man popularly known as Dangerman was alleged to have been stopped from performing the duty forthwith on a flimsy reason that he is an “old man.”
“In clear terms, it means that the Clerk could convoke the House even on a weekend and at odd hour of the night to clandestinely inaugurate the new Assembly,” he said.
It would be recalled that in 2015, shortly before the end of Governor Sullivan Chime’s administration, some members of the House of Assembly in the state met around 3:30 in the morning and purportedly impeached RT. Hon. Eugene Odo and quickly elected Hon. Chinedu Nwamba as the new Speaker of the House of Assembly.
The reason for the disruption of that Assembly was to create an easy passage for the then out going governor to access about N11b loan.
Recall that the offence of RT. Hon. Eugene Odo was that he was not willing to allow the approval of the loan for the then governor who had less than two weeks to go.
As at the time of filing this report, the leadership of the Labour Party were meeting to ensure a successful inauguration of the 8th Assembly.
