The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo state says there is an ongoing plan to impeach local government chairpersons in the state.

On December 17, the Edo state house of assembly suspended all 18 chairpersons and their deputies over allegations of misappropriation of funds.

Blessing Agbebaku, speaker of the house, said Monday Okpebholo, the state governor, filed a petition to the assembly over the refusal of the LGA heads to submit the financial records of their councils.

Lateef Fagbemi, attorney-general of the federation, had condemned the action of the parliament, saying state houses of assembly have no powers to suspend or remove council chairpersons.

Last Friday, a high court in Edo state ordered the reinstatement of the suspended chairpersons and their deputies.

‘OKPEBHOLO WORKING TO IMPEACH LGA CHAIRPERSONS’

In a statement released on Tuesday, Anthony Aziegbemi, chairman of the PDP caretaker committee in Edo state, claimed that Okpebholo is “sponsoring meetings across the LAGs in a desperate bid to impeach the substantive chairmen”.

Aziegbemi alleged that Damian Lawani, chairman of the local government service commission; and Gani Audu, Okpebholo’s chief of staff, are “actively involved in these unlawful acts”.

“He (Audu) has been threatening and harassing councillors across the State, trying to force them to cut ties with the substantive elected local government chairmen, with the warning that their loyalty should be to the governor and nobody else,” the statement reads.

“Furthermore, Okpebholo has directed that under no circumstances must any council chairman be granted access to his office in the Council, ordering the Council Administrators to work in conjunction with all relevant security Agencies and their party thugs to achieve this devious plan.

“The plan we are aware is to lure or force the councillors to impeach the substantive chairmen (without recourse to the laid down process enshrined in our laws).“

“alter signatories to local government accounts as well as clandestine efforts to withdraw funds from local government accounts without a proper mandate”.

“There are also reports of illegal requests for sensitive council documents by unauthorized persons,” he said.

“This flagrant disregard for our judiciary and the subversion of the Constitution of our country is a serious threat to our democracy and if this lawlessness is allowed to continue, it will not only undermine the rule of law but will also create a dangerous precedent, weakening our entire legal and democratic system.

“What we are witnessing, and we say this with all sense of responsibility, is an attempt to unlawfully and illegally remove or overthrow an elected tier of government in Edo state, a component and federating unit of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, contrary to Section 1(2) of the Constitution and judicial orders. In other words, an attempted coup d’etat in the state.”

Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, the former minister of women affairs, says she did not regret her actions as a cabinet member in President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

The former minister spoke on Wednesday during an interview on Channels Television.

Kennedy-Ohanenye, who was among the five ministers sacked by Tinubu in October, said she could not have acted better than the way she did while in office.

Her time as the minister was characterised by controversy, including issuing a threat to sue the United Nations (UN) for allegedly mismanaging funds meant for Nigeria.

Responding to why the president relieved her as a minister, Kennedy-Ohanenye said she was not a “witch” to have known the reason.

“I’m not a witch to know why I was sacked, and I have decided not to think about it,” the former minister said.

“The important thing is that I have been sacked, and I have refocused on what I was doing before.”

However, she noted that her commitment to defending vulnerable individuals in society remains unchanged.

On why some Nigerians think she was not diplomatic as a minister in handling some issues, Kennedy-Ohanenye said she was handling sensitive cases that involved a lot of human sympathy.

Kennedy-Ohanenye argued that she was appointed as a minister to serve the people and not to act as someone bigger than the people.

“Being a minister of women affairs as at that time, I was handling sensitive cases,” she said.

“You can be in the office, and they will show you a girl who was raped. You will see the substance from the man in her. I wonder what you expect me to do.

“Some of them said, ‘she does not carry herself as a minister. She goes to the police station herself. Why can’t she be in her office and call the IGP?’.

“I’m sorry for some people, the way they think. As a minister, you are supposed to be a servant; you listen to the people and respond quickly before things go wrong.

“I don’t know what people think about being diplomatic when things are damaging.

“I have no regrets in the way I did my job. I don’t have regrets. I don’t think I could have done it better.

“That was the highest way I could have done it. That issue of being diplomatic is what I don’t understand.”

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo says the suspension of all the chairpersons and their deputies in the 18 LGAs of the state is “unconstitutional”.

The chairpersons and their deputies were suspended on Tuesday by the Edo state house of assembly for two months over alleged misappropriation of funds.

Blessing Agbebaku, the speaker of the house, said Monday Okpebholo, governor of Edo, had written a petition to the assembly regarding the chairpersons’ refusal to submit the financial records of their LGs to the state government.

In a statement, Anthony Aziegbemi, chair of the PDP in Edo, said the “illegal” suspension is a disregard to a supreme court decision that affirms the autonomy and independence of local governments.

“How can the governor direct the State Assembly to suspend democratically elected chairmen of the 18 local councils for insubordination when these elected officials enjoy autonomy and independence as enshrined in the constitution and are not subordinates of the governor, the state assembly, or any other arm of government?,” he said.

“We are also aware that the chairmen and their vices were not even given the opportunity to be heard in their detence and were suspended unheard on watery trumped up charges, in total disregard to the constitution.

“We want to restate that the constitution remains supreme, and any attempt to undermine its provisions or disregard the judiciary and its rulings is not only illegal but also a direct attack on democracy and the rule of law.

“The speaker of the Edo state house of assembly and the entire assembly have clearly overstepped their constitutional mandates with this illegal action and we urge them to immediately reverse its decision, in respect to the rule of law and democratic governance.”

Aziegbemi said the suspended officials should report to their councils on Wednesday and carry on with their normal duties.

Also speaking on the issue, Anthony Ehilebo, a PDP chieftain, said Okpebholo has no legal backing to request the financial records of the LGAs.

“In fact, the governor and the assembly members are in contempt of the supreme court,” Ehilebo said when he appeared on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme.

“The purported suspension of the local government chairmen by the state assembly is as absurd as the president asking the national assembly to suspend state governors because they refused to submit statements of accounts to him.

“This is a witch hunt. The LGA chairmen are all PDP members.”

The lawyer said the suspension “is unknown to law and will be ignored”.