By Ehi Ekhator
The impeached speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Honorable Justin Okonoboh has said that the reasons behind his removal were false.
He spoke with NAIJA CENTER NEWS on Monday, hours after he was removed by 19 lawmakers out of 24.
Okonoboh also disclosed that, as far as every lawmakers are qualified to be speaker, there would always be plans to achieve their dreams. He added that if you could convince 2/3 of the members to support your plan, for no reason, the speaker could be impeached.
He stressed that the house would do everything possible to amend the constitution so that Speakers can be impeached like the governors: Set up panels to investigate allegations before impeachment motion is moved, if found guilty of the offences.
The embattled speaker also said that his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC has been informed and would get feedback on Tuesday.
Okonoboh said “The allegations against me are bogus. If you accuse somebody, you must mention a specific thing the person has done. We have informed the party and we will hear from the leaders of the party by tomorrow.
“When this type of thing happen, you must say things to back up what your intended goals are. In the house, everybody is qualified to be a speaker, you don’t need to do anything before you are removed. Everybody wants to be a speaker, if you can convince 16 people out of 24 to support you, you can remove the speaker and another person comes on.
“The woman that handed over to me did not do anything, she has to step down because we needed to balance the political equation, so changing the leadership in the house has nothing to do with any crime, once 2/3 says okay, you are removed.
“This is why we are trying to change the constitution now so that speakers like governors are removed through the same procedures. For the governors to be removed, you have to mention specific allegations and a panel is set up to look up the allegations before the impeachment motion is moved.
“But for the speaker, if 16 says no, we want another person, then you are gone, and they will find something to back up their actions whether it happened or not.”
The Impeached speaker also said that having Hon. Edobor as deputy Speaker explained how the house works.
It could be recalled that Edobor who is now the Deputy Speaker of the house was impeached on the ground of financial misappropriation, awarding contracts without due process and more.
The current Speaker, Hon Kabiru Adjoto was one of the lawmakers who impeached the now deputy speaker on the ground of corruption.
Speaking on the issue, Hon Okonoboh said “On Mr. Edobor, it explains the way the house works, there must be a power behind that has triggered this removal before others start joining.
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