The crises rocking the Edo State House of Assembly reared its ugly head in Makurdi, weekend, at the just concluded Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly, when the Edo State House of Assembly Speaker, Bright Omonkhodion, was allegedly walked out of the gathering by 35 other Speakers.


The Speaker who stormed out of Benue Government House banquet hall , venue of the conference, refused to disclose the reasons why his colleagues from the other 35 states of the federation threw him out of the conference.
However, in a communiqué at the end of the two day summit, Chairman of the Conference and Speaker of the Taraba State House of Assembly, Mr. Haruna Istifanus Gbanna, recalled the crisis that had engulfed the Edo State House of Assembly and the factionalisation of the House leadership.

Gbanna explained that the conference premised its decision not to recognise the Edo State Speaker on the fact that the Edo Assembly was still in crisis, hence it was only logical that the factions in the crisis resolve their pending cases at the courts before seeking recognition at the Conference of Speakers. Meanwhile, in a swift reaction to the expulsion of Omonkhodion from the Conference of Speakers, the Afemai Peoples’ Forum (APF), an umbrella body of majority of Edo people, congratulated the Nigerian Speakers Conference for its decision.


In a statement issued in Makurdi and signed by its National Chairman, Isah Aliyu, the group stated that “by preventing Omonkhodion from the meeting, the Speakers of the other 35 States’ Houses of Assembly in Nigeria have demonstrated that, the sanctity of our democratic institutions runs paramount in their hearts.”

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