Edo Assembly impasse: Clerk gets the blame

By Felix Omorodion, Benin

Mr. Yahaya Omogbai, the Clerk, Edo state House of Assembly, EDHA, seems to have been ‘crowned’ as the scape-goat in the current EDHA
impasse.
Mr. Godwin Obaseki, the Edo state Governor, recently, in his response
to newsmen in Benin city on the EDHA brouhaha, said, he has performed
his constitutional duty by issuing a proclamation letter and that, the
Clerk of the House undertook the processes of inauguration as deem
fit.

Earlier in a leaked audio conversation, the Clerk of the House was
heard confessing on how he was kidnapped and intimidated into
conducting the nocturnal inauguration in the night of the 17th June,
but however, denied that, he was given any monetary incentive to do
so. But, from our investigations, a Prado Jeep and the sum of five
million naira (#5M) was given to him by the governor of the state; in
addition to which a police escort has also been attached to him to
ward off people that may want to harass him for the sinister role he
played in the iniquitous nocturnal inauguration.

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Contrary to what Mr. Omogbai said in the leaked audio conversation
however, he sang a different tune to the investigation committee that
was sent from the House of Representatives to investigate the issue,
as he lied that the inauguration of the nine, out of twenty four
members, took place at about 3:00pm on the 17th  June, and that, as
against the usual publicity that was given to previous inaugurations
in EDHA, he only made phone calls to the members to inform them of the
inauguration, and it was only those that he could reach that were
eventually present for the inauguration.

Meanwhile, the investigation committee sent from the House of
Representatives, following the EDHA stalemate, to investigate the
remote and immediate causes of the impasse, has ordered the
Directorate for Security Services, DSS, and the Inspector General of
Police, IGP, to shut down Edo state House of Assembly and has also
asked the Edo state Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki to issue a
proclamation letter within five days for a fresh inauguration and also publish same in the national dailies.