Anambra House expels Chris Uba's aides
From Chuks Collins, Onitsha
SEVENTEEN days after marking the first year of the failed impeachment of the Anambra State governor, Dr. Chris Ngige, the state House of Assembly yesterday expelled two prime figures in the ill-fated move.
Citing failure to meet constitutional provisions for attending legislative sittings, the Assembly dismissed its former Speaker, Mrs. Eucharia Azodo (PDP, Aguata) and the litigant whose suit led to the controversial court order removing Ngige from office, Mr. Nelson Achukwu (PDP, Nnewi South 1). Both were known aides of the self-confessed mastermind of the abortive impeachment bid, Chief Chris Uba.
The state government had on July 10 marked the first year of 2003 abduction of the governor by a team of policemen and a simultaneous approval of Ngige's purported resignation by the Assembly, then under Azodo's leadership.
The celebration was in defiance of a directive by the national executive of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).
Azodo who was impeached as the Speaker of the House on July 15, 2003 following her involvement in the July 10 saga was subsequently suspended alongside Achukwu, who filed a suit before Justice Stanley Nnaji of an Enugu High Court, challenging Ngige's claim to the governorship seat.
The 30-member Anambra House had earlier invited the suspended members to a meeting, for them to tender an unreserved apology and withdraw the court cases they initiated against the state government. The duo, however, did not attend the meeting.
While introducing the motion for their dismissal yesterday, the majority leader Humphrey Nsofor (PDP, Ekwusigo) said that the move was in line with Section 109F (3) of 1999 Constitution.
Section 109 (1)(f) of the 1999 Constitution states: "A member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if "without just cause he is absent from meetings of the House of Assembly for a period amounting in the aggregate to more than one-third of the total number of days during which the House sits in any one year."
He noted that the House had one-third mandatory period of sittings which the duo failed to satisfy.
The Speaker said: "That is what happened today and the majority had no option than to move the motion" He added: "It is a painful decision we had to take and they also had opportunity of defending themselves of allegations levelled against them but they failed."
The speaker said that the clerk of the House Dr. Aloysius Ikwuka had earlier informed the Assembly that the two members had not sat in the House for over a year.
So, there was no other constitutional choice left, but to move motion that their seats be declared vacant.
In his contribution, Peter Onuorah (PDP), Ayamelum) said that the two expelled members broke their oaths of allegiance, noting that their removal was a painful choice in the absence of any alternative.
The Deputy Speaker, Chief Ozo Ughamadu, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to quickly organise bye-elections in the two constituencies to fill the vacuum.
The INEC was yet to react to the development as at press time.
Azodo's election was nullified earlier in the year by the election tribunal sitting in the state and she's still battling with her Appeal.
Justice Nnaji on January 2, 2004 ordered the withdrawal of Ngige's security details. Although he has been sanctioned by the National Judicial Council (NJC) for the order, police authorities are yet to restore the security operatives.
But Azodo has declared the declaration by the Assembly as illegal.
In a telephone interview with The Guardian yesterday evening, the former speaker who declined disclosing her location queried: are they INEC Is the House of Assembly now INEC.
She continued: "How can they turn round to declare the seat of somebody who is on suspension vacant How can that be possible
She added that her comments would be withheld until she is formally contacted by the House.`
