UPDATED: Impeached Edo Speaker suspended for three months

Impeached Edo Speaker Francis Okiye has been suspended for three months to allow for a peaceful transition.

He was impeached on Monday over alleged highhandedness and misappropriation of funds.

Okiye was impeached exactly a month to the inauguration of Governor Godwin Obaseki and his deputy, Philip Shaibu for the second term.

The ex-Speaker, a loyalist of Obaseki of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), impeached by nine of the 10 formally-inaugurated members of the Edo Assembly during a plenary session which lasted for some minutes.

It was gathered that Okiye would have been impeached last week but for the intervention of Obaseki.

The motion for his impeachment was moved by the Majority Leader, Henry Okhuarobo, seconded by Prince Yekini Idaiye was representing Akoko-Edo constituency 1.

The member representing Igueben constituency, Ephraim Aluebhosele, moved a motion nominating a new speaker, Marcus Onobun, seconded by the member representing Akoko-Edo II constituency, Emmanuel Agbaje.

The Deputy Speaker, Roland Asoro, who presided over the plenary, after the impeachment of Okiye, put the motion to a voice vote and it enjoyed the support of all the members at the plenary.

The new Speaker hailed the lawmakers on his election and announced the dissolution of all the Assembly’s standing committees while relieving all the appointees of the House of their appointments.

Onobun also constituted a three-member committee to look into the financial records of the Assembly when Okiye was Speaker while placing him on suspension for three months, to allow for a peaceful transition.

He refused to respond to enquiries by The Nation on his predicament.