Seventeen members of Edo State House of Assembly claim they have impeached the Speaker, Mr. Francis Okiye and the newly inaugurated Deputy Speaker, Roland Asoro.
The 17 lawmakers comprise 14 members whose seats were declared vacant, and an additional three members of the Assembly.
The decision was taken on Thursday at a private location in Benin City, the state capital, hours after security officials took over the State Assembly Complex. The 14 lawmakers later teamed up with the three others to impeach Okiye and Asoro.
In their place, the lawmakers said they have elected Victor Edoror, who represents Esan Central Constituency and Emmanuel Agbaje, who represents Akoko-Edo Constituency II as Speaker and Deputy Speaker, respectively.
The Edo State House of Assembly has been embroiled in a crisis since 2019.
Twenty four lawmakers were elected during the 2019 general elections.However, only 10 of them were inaugurated on July 17, 2019, sparking a controversy that included intervention from the National Assembly
Five of the 10 lawmakers that were inaugurated including the then Deputy Speaker, Yekini Idiaye, had declared support for Ize-Iyamu recently, after accusing Governor Godwin Obaseki of rendering the legislature in the state useless.
But the five remaining lawmakers met on Wednesday and impeached Idiaye, replacing him with Asoro.
Although a total of 19 lawmakers have pledged their loyalty to the APC, only 17 were present at the meeting and signed the impeachment notice.
The lawmakers, before the end of the plenary, also issued a notice to the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police in Edo State that they would be taking over the Assembly on Friday, having taken over its leadership.
Source: Newspeak