The expected defections among political office holders with Edo Governor, Godwin Obaseki suffered a setback as the speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon Francis Okiye said he was yet to decide his next move whether to leave the All Progressives Congress (APC) like Obaseki or remain.
Meanwhile, the leader of Ovia South West local government area, Hon Robert Ekeme Fiyes and his deputy Godwin Ekhator were removed with three councillors out of ten for allegedly not supporting Obaseki.
Speaking to journalists to mark his one year anniversary as Edo Speaker, Okiye, however, said Obaseki can remain governor of the state without belonging to any political party.
He said the Governor is yet to formally inform him of his resignation from the APC but that he has not considered resigning from the ruling party.
The Edo speaker said, “I know that our electoral law does allow for independent candidacy so that the governor without a party in a state can sponsor himself in an election within the manifesto of his electoral campaign, he can administer the state.
“To the best of my knowledge, a governor without a party has not committed an offence that we would begin to raise questions within the polity.
“He enjoys the constitutional rights to resign from one party to join another. It is not in contradiction to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“Members of the Assembly are not running a joint ticket with the governor and within the constitutional allowance, you know that the governor has the right to move from one party to another.
“In this circumstance, I can speak for myself that as a Speaker, I have not been formally communicated that the governor has moved from the party (APC). So, the issue about who is going with the governor or not is not being discussed.”
He said in the last one year, “12 bills were received adding that two were passed into law while four are at different stages and four assented to”
The removal of the legislative leaders was allegedly carried out in the private residence of a very influential chieftain of the party who is still in the Obaseki administration.
But a councillor who does not want his name mentioned said “We are not aware of any impeachment, our signatures were forged into a document and three of our members went to the house of a leader of APC who is not even from our local government but in government and purportedly removed the leader and his deputy.
“The allegation is that we are not loyal to the chairman who is supporting Governor Obaseki”
But when contacted, the chairman of the council, Hon Destiny Enaulele denied allegation of such development.
He said, “I am not aware of such, we operate independent arms of government but I have been informed that I have a letter from the legislative arm which I have not even seen”.
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