The Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) has accused the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti of constitutional breach which include undue interference in the activities of the State House of Assembly.
The PDP, Abia State chapter, stated this in a statement through its Vice-Chairman/ acting Publicity Secretary, Hon. Elder Abraham Amah, describing various activities of the governor as a breach of constitutional provision.
It alleged that Gov. Otti used the instrument of office to impose its candidate as Speaker of the House of Assembly even with lesser numbers of membership, as well as supervising the election of the leadership of the Assembly contrary to the democratic norms.
The statement reads, “The Abia PDP had a few weeks ago, raised a red alert about plans by Alex Otti and his Party to disregard the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which he swore to defend as well as the House Rules of the Abia State House of Assembly, when he worked for his minority party in the House of Assembly to produce the Speaker of the 8th Assembly. In the end we were vindicated when Emmanuel Emeruwa of the Labour Party became the Speaker despite the fact that he is from the minority Party and also not a ranking member of the House.
“The first sign of the Governor’s behind-the-scenes maneuver of the House to achieve a predetermined outcome was the delayed and eventual secretive issuing of the Proclamation for the inauguration of the 8th Assembly wherein it was orchestrated to have only members of the Labour Party present. When that failed, the governor rather than leave after the inauguration as is customary, to allow the members to carry out their first legislative assignment which is the election of the leadership, stayed back to supervise the election and in the process interfered with election of the leadership which impinges on the independence of the legislature.
“As we said in our subsequent press release following the aberration, as democrats we respect the independence of the legislature and allowed members to elect their leadership unencumbered by executive interference. But that was not to be so as the hand of the governor was very visible in the outcome of the election of the leadership of the Assembly as he went as far as personally invading the hallowed chambers of the House in an unprecedented manner to supervise the desecration of the House.
“A few days after that charade, we warned again about attempts by Dr. Alex Otti and the Labour Party to torpedo the trademark peace in Abia State by changing the House Rules once more, and use members of the Labour Party who are in the minority as Majority Leader and Deputy Majority Leader; positions which are by law reserved for members of the majority party in the parliament, and in this case the PDP.
“A few days after our warning, members of the Labour Party who are in the minority in the House were unilaterally appointed by the Labour Party as Majority Leader and Deputy Majority Leader of the House respectively, even when the PDP as of right had officially written to the House, nominating its members for the positions reserved for the majority Party. Aside from not reading the letter in the House plenary as required by parliamentary convention, the Labour Party also ignored the nominees of the majority PDP. And today, there is chaos in the Assembly as members of the PDP have outrightly rejected the nominations of members of the Labour Party into those offices.
“These reckless acts of lawlessness which are exciting to the members of the Labour Party and their sympathisers are gradually, but unknown to many, building a toxic political climate which would turn around to haunt and hurt everybody in the future if they are not checked. In the 24 years that the PDP held forte as the government in Abia State, there was not a single time that it used its executive powers to shortchange the opposition Party either in the House or any function in Abia State.
“These worsening acts of lawlessness by the new government increases with each passing day to the point that it is now going beyond the shores of the State to embarrass the good people of Abia State at the national level.”
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