Nine members of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly on Sunday said the resolution passed by 15 of their colleagues to serve a notice of impeachment on Governor Martins Elechi was unconstitutional.
The nine legislators, who are believed to be loyal to Elechi, said that the 15 pro-impeachment lawmakers did not constitute two-third majority as required by the 1999 Constitution to impeach the governor.
According to them, only 16 out of the 24 members can constitute two-third majority of the House and not 15.
The pro-Elechi lawmakers, who addressed journalists in Abakiliki, stressed that the “illegal” impeachment process would fail.
The spokesman for the nine lawmakers, Chima Eni, said, “Our attention has been drawn to the business of the ‘House’ of Friday, 27th day of February 2015, wherein a motion for a resolution that a notice of allegations of gross misconduct purportedly made against the governor by 15 members of the 24-member House was passed.
“The said resolution was purportedly passed in clear contravention of Section 188 (4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) which provides that ‘a motion of the House of Assembly that the allegation be investigated shall not be declared as having been passed unless it is supported by the votes of not less than two-third majority of all the members of the House of Assembly.’
“Fifteen members cannot be the ‘two-third majority of all the members’ of a 24- member House.”
Eni alleged that “desperate attempts and overtures are being made to induce and intimidate the nine lawmakers into yielding against the demand of justice and good conscience, to the plot for the impeachment of the governor.”
He explained that the nine lawmakers had resolved that none of them would attempt to go to the House of Assembly complex to forestall a breakdown of law and order, and to ensure the security of their lives.
He also alleged that “the Speaker, Chukwuma Nwazunku, and his “cohorts” have taken the attendance register of the House of Assembly to their principals in Abuja for the purpose of cloning the signatures of members of their faction.
“We cannot, in this life and forever, sign or attempt to sign any document seeking to remove the governor from office.
“We shall not even attend any sitting of the House for now, to avoid being forced at gunpoint to sign anything.
“We know, as a matter of indestructible fact, that ‘nearly does not kill a bird’ even though the hunter may claim that it makes him happy,” Eni added.
He also described as unconstitutional, the vacation of the seats of six members of the House by the Speaker.
According to Eni, the matter was already pending before the Federal High Court in Abakaliki.
In the suit, which was filed by 10 pro-Elechi lawmakers who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the Labour Party, the plaintiffs are asking the court for an injunction restraining the Speaker from declaring their seats vacant.
Eni said, “The Speaker, Chukwuma Nwanzuku, Ebonyi State House of Assembly and the Independent National Electoral Commission being parties to the suit, were duly served with the originating processes and are represented in the matter.
“Instead of waiting on the court, Mr. Nwazuku and his cohorts preferred to vacate seats of honourable members and sought to justify the purported vacation through paid radio and newspaper commentaries.”
The pro-Elechi lawmakers called on civil society organisations, religious groups, democratic institutions, law enforcement agencies and professional bodies, especially the Nigerian Bar Association, to make conscious efforts to ensure that the constitution and the country’s laws were upheld at all times.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State and the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state, Dave Umahi, has blamed the political crisis in the state on the refusal of his boss, Elechi, to fulfil his promise to hand over to him (Umahi) at the end of his tenure.
The deputy governor spoke while reacting to Elechi’s claims that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim; the ministerial nominee from the state, Fidelis Nwankwo; and a former Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ambassador Frank Ogbuewu, were behind the crisis in the state.
But addressing journalists in Abakiliki on Sunday, Umahi, who emerged the PDP governorship candidate despite opposition from Elechi, who favoured former Health minister, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, accused the governor of not saying the truth about the crisis in the state.
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