Edo State House of Assembly has accused the Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma and other APC Leaders of plotting to forcefully take over the Assembly with the importation of mace to perfect the act.
It also alleged that the plan was in connivance with the impeached Deputy Speaker, Yekini Idiaye who recently declared support for the governorship candidate of APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.
Speaker of the Assembly, Francis Okiye, who made the allegation while addressing journalists at the Government House, venue of the State Assembly, called for the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari and the presidency.
In his speech titled “Urgent Need to Call Imo State Governor, Sen. Hope Uzodinma And Leaders of The APC in Edo State to Order Over Their Plan to Violently and Illegally Take Over The Edo State House of Assembly”, Okiye alleged that the perpetrators planned to import a fake mace to take over the Assembly working in concert with the impeached Deputy Speaker.
He said the action if allowed to happen, is akin to lighting a match in an already tensed political environment, which conflagration is capable of causing crisis in the state on a scale that would be beyond imagination.
“In a scale that would be beyond imagination
“We call on Edo people whose mandate and interests the state legislature holds and protects, to rise against this planned attack and plot to subvert their will and subjugate them using external forces.
“We urge lovers of democracy across the world, institutions that uphold democratic tenets and values, pro-democracy groups, to denounce this planned illegality that seeks to distract a duly constituted authority”, he said.
But reacting, Governor Uzodimma described as false and baseless allegations by the Edo Speaker, that he was plotting to import mace to the Edo House of Assembly.
Uzodimma who reacted through the State commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba emphasised that the governor has no business with the problems in the state assembly, urging those concerned to settle their problem and leave him out of it.
He said: “it is unimaginable for somebody to say such a thing, how can he leave his saddled responsibility of governing his state to delve into such issues; they are only imagining things,;it is not his business how they run their assembly; right now, he is only thinking of how to take Imo to a greater height.
“So the allegation is false, baseless and unfounded and they should withdraw the allegation with immediate effect.”
Credit: The Sun