You Can’t Declare My Seat Vacant, Says Edo Lawmaker

A member of the Edo State House of Assembly representing Etsako West 1 Constituency, Hon. Abdulrazaq Momoh, has said his seat cannot be declared vacant because the exercise was not carried out on the floor of the House.

The Speaker of the House, Mr. Uyi Igbe, had on Wednesday declared Momoh’s seat vacant on the ground that the lawmaker who was elected on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which metamorphosed into All Progressives Congress (APC) did not follow due process before defecting to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Hon. Abdulrazaq Momoh

But Momoh, who described the House as “an institution,” said going by the pronouncement of the Supreme Court on a similar case in the past, such exercise was a nullity because the speaker declared his seat vacant at the government house and not on the floor of the House.

The lawmaker, who spoke with our correspondent in Benin yesterday, said, “You said Uyi Igbe is the speaker but a speaker sits in the House of Assembly not in a corner of the government house.

And in this document before me in the case between Lakoju and Adeleke and more specifically it is said, according to that judgment, the House of Assembly is an institution, it must sit in the place so provided for it and nowhere else.

“This was the Supreme Court judgment in that case of Lakoju when the Oyo State House of Assembly went to sit at D’ Rovans Hotel and the Supreme Court said that whatever they did at D’ Rovans was null and void because that is not the designated place for sitting of the state House of Assembly.

“So, Uyi Igbe only spoke as Mr. Uyi Igbe and not as the speaker of Edo State House of Assembly because he was not sitting in the House of Assembly.”

Referring to a newspaper advertisement, which was purportedly signed by the speaker, he said Igbe had admitted that no disciplinary action would be taken against him (Momoh) following an Auchi High Court subsisting order asking the lawmakers not to discipline Momoh.

“The House took this action in light of the issues raised therein which are yet to be pronounced upon by the court in order not to be seen or perceived as acting in contempt of the said order.

This was on July 10 and on July 17 or thereabout the courts went on strike. The strike is still on till now and the court has not sat on this matter. What has changed since then till now that Igbe will take such action?

“I would want to let you know that Igbe’s action is prompted by the fact that they forged my signature for the process of the purported impeachment of the Deputy Speaker, Festus Ebea, and the law enforcement agencies are taking appropriate steps to bring them to book,” he added.

Momoh accused the lawmakers of trying to lure him out of the Assembly complex so that he could be killed by assassins and prevented from giving evidence “when it is time for their prosecution for allegedly forging my signature.”

The lawmaker, who observed that his purported suspension was carried out on the last day of sitting, expressed shock at such move.

Momoh accused the state government of instigating the crisis because he called on law enforcement agents to probe the alleged diversion of N22 billion allocated to the state local governments

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You Can’t Declare My Seat Vacant, Says Edo Lawmaker