The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday officially assumed the role of Majority Party in the Edo State House of Assembly (EDHA), following the confirmation of Hon. Jonathan Aigbokhan (APC- Esan West Constituency) as Majority Leader of the House.
The development was sequel to a letter addressed to the House by the APC leadership, dated April 8th, wherein Hon. Charity Aiguobarueghian of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP, the former occupier of the position was replaced by Aigbokhan.
Hon. Natasha Osawaru, (PDP- representing Egor Constituency) also lost her position as Deputy Majority Leader of the House to Hon. Addeh Isibor (APC), while Mustapha Lecky emerged as the Chief Whip during plenary on Tuesday.
Recall that four members of EDHA (three from PDP and one from Labour Party), recently defected to the ruling APC in Edo, making the APC the majority party in the House with 13 lawmakers against PDP 11 respectively.
The defected lawmakers — Donald Okugbe (Akoko Edo Constituency II), Bright Iyamu (Orhionmwon South Constituency II), Richard Edosa (Oredo West Constituency), and Sunday Ojezele (Esan South East) Constituencies.
After the defection of the four lawmakers, the APC had in March notified the House of its majority status and stated that it would at a later date effect changes in the leadership of the House.
But, the leadership change, did not affect the elected Peoples Democratic Party Speaker, Blessing Agbebaku and the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Maria Edeko.
During the meeting on Tuesday, the Speaker of the Assembly, Blessing Agbebaku, read a letter from the APC leadership and confirmed the new principal officers.
Similarly, the position of Deputy Chief Whip, initially assigned to Richard Edosa (APC-Oredo West), was withdrawn as the House does not recognise such a position.
Following the announcement of the new leadership, Speaker Agbebaku disclosed that the PDP would also submit its list of Principal officers.
He clarified that the distinction between majority and minority should not distract from the House’s collective responsibility to serve the State.
Also at plenary, the House approved the Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo’s request to engage consulting firm to review, reconcile, and recover amount due to the State Government from project Gazelle Afriexim loan and any other crude oil loan arrangements and the deduction at source of 10 percent as professional fees.
The request letter signed by Governor Okpebholo was read to lawmakers during plenary by The Speaker, Rt Hon. Blessing Agbebaku.
According to the Governor, the purpose of the letter was to draw the attention of the house, and to request approval to join 35 other states to recover the amount due to it from the project Gazelle Afriexim loan.
Agbebaku noted that there was a “need to support and grant the request of the governor” adding that the funds would aid the socioeconomic development in the states.
The lawmakers in a voice vote approved the Governor’s request to engage the consultant to recover the loan.
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