The Edo State House of Assembly Speaker, Francis Okiye, has been impeached.
His removal came after a motion by the Majority Leader of the House, Henry Okhurobo, that the speaker should be removed over the allegations of high-handedness.
His impeachment letter was signed by nine of the ten members present at a brief sitting on Monday.
Following his impeachment, the House elected Onobun, representing Esan West State Constituency, as the new Speaker.
The crisis rocking the Edo House of Assembly started when it was inaugurated under controversial circumstances at night with only nine, out of 24 elected lawmakers, on June 17, 2019, following an alleged proclamation by Governor Godwin Obaseki.
The 14 lawmakers who were sidelined from the process and the All Progressives Congress (APC) rejected the process and called on the governor to issue a fresh proclamation.
However, a Rivers State’s Federal High Court barred the governor from doing so, while a separate curt also barred the National Assembly from taking over the Edo Assembly.
This worsen the crisis within the APC in the state and deepened the feud between Obaseki and the former governor, Adams Oshiomhole, who was then the Chairman of the APC.
The governor was believed to have been behind the suspension of Oshiomhole from the party at the ward level. In retaliation, Oshiomhole ensured that Obaseki was denied the APC governorship ticket while Osagie Ize-Iyamu emerged as the winner of the party’s primary.
An attempt by the aggrieved lawmakers to be inaugurated was scuttled by men claiming to be renovating the Assembly complex.
The APC then claimed that the men were thugs hired by the governor who was afraid of being impeached.
Obaseki dumped APC for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) for his re-election bid. Shortly after he won the September 19 poll, he said he lacked the power to bring back the 14 lawmakers who have not been inaugurated.
The governor added that the 14 lawmakers “refused to be inaugurated.”
The Governor said, “They were listening to their godfather who kept hoping and promising that he would unconstitutionally get the state House of Assembly to reissue a proclamation even after the court had settled the matter.
“For more than 180 days they did not come. They refused to represent the people. Those seats became vacant; that’s what the constitution says.
“They went to court after the seats were declared vacant by the Speaker. There is nothing I can do to that at this time.
“I wish it did not happen but people were playing God and promising what is not constitutionally possible.
“It is not about me. I am an elected governor of Edo. I am not one that planted people into the house of Assembly.
“They, on their own, operated the rules the way it should be, the seats are now vacant.
“We should learn that democracy is underpinned by the constitution and the law.
“Even if I wanted today to bring them back, I don’t have such powers.
“I do not have anything against them because I do not have such authority to bring them back to the house.”
