The suspended Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, lawmakers in the Edo State House of Assembly, have vowed that no amount of intimidation or threat would stop them from attending the sitting which reconvenes today.
This is coming just as the Benin National Congress, BNC, has warned that the people of the state will hold political leaders responsible in the event of any blood bath if the warring lawmakers failed to heed the call by the Oba of Benin for a cease fire.
The monarch had, while hosting lawmakers following the crisis rocking the House, said: “Taking into consideration what has been happening since the beginning of this week (last week), I am appealing to you not to engage in the destruction of lives and property for whatever reasons.
“I also appeal to you, as you leave here, to have the interest of Edo State at heart and amicably resolve whatever political disagreement you may have, which I am sure, you are well capable of resolving for peace and security to reign in the state.”
The monarch, according to sources, became worried when it was gathered that political thugs were being mobilised to storm the Assembly complex today with a view to doing the bidding of their bosses.
Tension particularly heightened following the insistence by PDP that the four suspended lawmakers will attend today’s sitting.
The PDP lawmakers, who spoke to journalists in company of the state Working Committee of the party at the party’s secretariat, said they would attend today’s sitting, despite an order barring them from going into the Assembly and the legislators’ quarters.
Their decision to resume sitting today is coming on the heels of the state party chairman, Dan Orbih’s position that the administration of justice in the state was putting the state on the precipice of political anarchy.
Explaining why the suspended members would attend plenary today, one of the eight PDP lawmakers and the Minority Leader of the House, Emmanuel Okoduwa, said the two reliefs granted the APC lawmakers were strange and unworkable.
“We said the order that lawmakers cannot enter the legislative quarters is strange because as lawmakers, we pay monthly rents to live in the quarters. There is no order that will say that you cannot stay in an apartment for which you are paying N27, 000 monthly.
“The second relief which says the purportedly suspended members should not disturb the business of the House is simply asking someone, who was elected to represent his people, not to do so. As a matter of fact, legislative business can never be complete without such persons. So, the orders are not enforceable if they were granted in the first place,” he said.
Orbih, on his part, regretted that the crisis rocking the Edo State House of Assembly would have been resolved after a meeting of the 24 members of the House on Wednesday, but for the involvement of the state government, which he said asked the APC lawmakers to renege on the agreement reached by the warring lawmakers during the Wednesday meeting.
He added that the visit of APC lawmakers to the House of Assembly on Friday, when plenary had been adjourned to Monday, was questionable.
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