Edo Assembly rejects House of Reps’ move to disrupt activities

……..calls on IGP, DSS, all parties to respect subsisting court order

The Edo State House of Assembly has rejected the move by the House of Representatives to disrupt activities in its chamber, calling on the Inspector General of Police and heads of the Department of State Services, the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress to respect a subsisting court order restraining them from interfering in the activities of Edo House of Assembly.

Speaker of the Edo House of Assembly, Mr Frank Okiye, said this in a statement he issued in Benin City on Wednesday, following reports of an order by the House of Representatives to seal up the Edo House of Assembly.

Okiye said, “It has come to our knowledge that the Ad hoc Committee of the House of Representatives investigating issues surrounding the inauguration of the Edo State House of Assembly has recommended that the Inspector General of Police and Department of State Services should seal up the Edo Assembly.”

The Speaker noted that “Considering what we (have) come to know in the course of this process, the recommendation of the ad hoc committee does not come to us as a surprise.”

Rt. Hon Okiye maintained that “It was clear that the ad hoc committee was up to no good. Their report was always going to be biased.

“Moreover, we want to draw the attention of the general public and the police to a subsisting court order restraining the Police, headed by the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu; the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress, the Department of State Services and their agents, from interfering in the affairs of the Assembly, as the House has been going about its activities peacefully and without rancour.”

He advised that “The National Assembly must take note that they are expected to act as agents of peace and not merchants of crisis. Edo State has always been peaceful and any attempt for them to carry out this order will certainly disrupt the peace that is currently being enjoyed in the state.”

The Speaker stressed that, “In a time like this in which the nation is being engulfed in one form of violence or the other, it is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is seen to be promoting violence and exacerbating the tension in the country.”