A former aide to Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state, John Maiyaki has dragged the governor to the Conduct of Conduct Bureau, accusing him and his deputy, Phillip Shuaibu of misconduct and abuse of their oath of office, by issuing a proclamation for the inauguration of the state House of Assembly excluding some members.
Maiyaki, according to a report in The Nation,also wants the Conduct of Conduct Bureau to investigate the Secretary to the State Government, Osatodion Ogie, accusing them of beaching paragraph 1 and 9 of the part 1 of 5th schedule to the 1999 constitution as amended.
In a petition dated August 9th submitted to the Code of Conduct, Maiyaki who was Obaseki’s first spokesperson said the governor, his deputy and the Secretary to the State Government jointly and severally abused their office by engaging in an arbitrary act of unlawfully excluding 14 elected members of the Edo state House of Assembly from participating in the first session oF the assembly held on 17th June, 2019.
According to him, the governor clandestinely issued a proclamation without notice to 14 elected members of the Edo House of Assembly and the general public in the state, an act which is prejudicial to the rights of any other person knowing that such act is an unlawful act and contrary to government policy.
He also alleged that the governor and others abused their office “by engaging in an arbitrary act of unlawfully refusing to comply with the resolutions of the National Assembly directing the Executive Governor of Edo state to issue valid proclamation for the first session of the EDHA in accordance with the provisions of section 105 (3) of the 1999 constitution.”
Maiyaki alleged that at the time of illegally issuing proclamation for the inauguration of the EDHA, the governor’s intention was to unlawfully foist his proffered house leadership on the entire Assembly by issuing a secret proclamation in abuse of his office as the governor of the state constitutionally vested with the powers to issue proclamation for summoning the Assembly.
He also said that the governor has unlawfully contrived the crisis between the National Assembly and the state House of Assembly with a view to preventing the state Assembly from exercising its full powers granted under the 1999 constitution.
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He said further that “to achieve the unlawful act of excluding 14 elected members of the EDHA from participating in the first session of the sitting of the EDHA, the Executive Governor and the other parties clandestinely and unlawfully inaugurated the EDHA at 9.00pm outside official hours of the government of Edo state… and unlawfully withheld notice of the letter of proclamation from the 14 elected members of the EDHA.”
He argued that the action of the governor is prejudicial to the rights of any o the 14 elected members of the EDHA and the general public knowing that such failure to comply with both resolutions of the National Assembly amounts to an unlawful act and contrary to government policy and their oath of office.
He accused the governor of sponsoring some people to procure an interim injunction from the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt against the National Assembly contrary to the provisions of section 1 (1) of the Supreme Court (additional original jurisdiction) Act, 2002 which vest original jurisdiction in any dispute the House of Assembly of a state and the National Assembly on the Supreme Court.
He said “The order of the Federal High Court is an arbitrary and unlawful order made without jurisdiction for purposes of enabling the Executive Governor of Edo state and the others mentioned above to continue the abuse of their office and failing to comply with the resolution of the National Assembly directing the governor to issue a proclamation for the first session of the EDHA.”
He asked the Code of Conduct to prosecute the governor, his deputy and Secretary for breach of paragraph 1 and 9 of the code of conduct applicable to public officers and apply the required sanction as contained in paragraph 18(2).
