The outburst of the lawmaker representing Nsuka East State Constituency, Mr Malachy Onyechi in the Enugu State House of Assembly during the last plenary session held on the 16th day of May 2024 has put the members of the House in disarray.
Onyechi raised a point of order, maintaining that the House was not properly constituted as both the majority and minority leadership are unknown.
Though overruled by the Speaker of the House, Uche Ugwu, the incident called for a deeper investigation into the activities going on in the State Assembly.
Investigations reveal that there is a plot by the State Governor, Peter Mbah to force the Speaker to sack Iloabuchi Aniagu, a 4th term member of the House who was the minority leader when PDP was the minority in the House and should have been the majority leader now that the PDP is the majority, but to announce Johnson Ani, the former majority leader of the House from Labour Party (who abandoned his Party and defected) to the PDP as the new PDP majority leader of a party he just joined a few weeks ago.
The Governor also wanted the Speaker to remove Ekwueme Chukwuma of Uzo-Uwani State Constituency who fought vigorously for the PDP to win the last election. To remove him as the Chief (Majority) whip and announce Ejike Eze of Igboeze North 1, who just joined the PDP as the new Chief Whip of the House, among other changes.
This decision did not go down well with the Speaker who believed that the Governor, and rightly so, had a penchant for favouring the defected LP House members against the members of his party, the PDP.
The Speaker rather informed the PDP principal officers to be removed from the plans and directives from the governor. Since then the house has been in chaos and the situation has not been easy to manage. Some staff and political appointees revealed that for the past weeks, after every plenary, the members shout and fight over unknown issues during their executive sessions. This matter has generated a lot of tension and the speaker is helpless on how best to handle the situation.
One of the PDP principal officers who spoke on a condition of anonymity said: “We are tired of Governor Peter Mbah and his selfishness. I know how I fought for me and him to win this election.
"These LP guys fought him to a standstill and I have the videos. How can he turn around and choose them over u? Just how? Strangers do not come in and become kings in a kingdom they know nothing about. We cannot say for sure if we are still in the same party, may God help us.”
Another female member(name withheld) lashed out “If this is done Peter Mbah shall know no peace. Do you know we can hardly see this man but these LP guys see him at will? He has refused to see the House members since his swearing-in. The PDP house members cannot even access him. He doesn’t listen to the speaker or the leadership, he does only his will as if we are intruders. He is not a good man but let’s see how it goes.
One of the Labour Party members also argued that there was no basis for the Speaker to withhold the pronouncement of who the new Minority Leaders were. He said “We have submitted the list of our new principal officer/leadership to the speaker, we have even met with him and he told us to write which we did, yet he sat on it. The Assembly has become an Assembly of Chickens. We are planning to go to court to challenge the reason the Speaker and his party the PDP, will not allow us the minority to have our constitutionally guaranteed leadership in the State Assembly. If it’s the Governor that is behind this he should know that this is democracy and rule of La,w not tyranny or dictatorship.”
Efforts to reach the speaker have proved abortive and numerous of the other house members were evasive when we tried to get their perspective.
What is obvious is that there is no peace in the State Assembly but uneasy calm. The Governor seem to be suffocating the House and it’s only a matter of time, like a time bomb, the House will explode. The outburst of Hon. Malachy Onyechi of Nsukka East constituency in the Enugu State House of Assembly on their last plenary session which was held on the 16th day of May, 2024.
Onyechi raised a point of order, maintaining that the House was not properly constituted as both the majority and leadership are unknown. Though overruled by the speaker, the incident caused us to investigate deeper into the activities going on in the State Assembly.
Our investigations reveal that there is a plot by the Governor to force the Speaker to sack Rt. Hon. Iloabuchi Aniagu, a 4th term member of the House who was the minority leader when PDP was the minority in the House and should be majority leader now that PDPise in the majority, but to announce Hon. Johnson Ani, the former majority leader of the House from Labour Party(who abandoned his Party and defected) to the PDP as the new PDP majority leader of a party he just joined a few weeks ago.
The Governor also wanted the Speaker to remove Hon. Ekwueme Chukwuma of Uzo-Uwani, who fought vigorously for the PDP to win the last election. To remove him as the Chief (Majority) whip and announce Hon. Ejike Eze of Igboeze North 1, who just joined the PDP as the new Chief Whip of the House. Among other changes.
This decision didn’t go down well with the Speaker who believed that the Governor, and rightly so, had a penchant for favouring the defected LP House members against the members of his party, the PDP.
The Speaker rather informed the PDP principal officers to be removed from the plans and directives from the governor. Since then the house has been in chaos and the situation has not been easy to manage. Some staff and political appointees reveal that for the past 8/6 weeks, after every plenary, the members shout and fight over unknown issues during their executive sessions. This matter has generated a lot of tension and the speaker is helpless on how best to handle the situation.
One of the PDP principal officers who spoke on a condition of anonymity said “We are tired of Gov. Peter Mbah and his selfishness. I know how I fought for me and him to win this election. These LP guys fought him to a standstill and I have the videos. How can he turn around and choose them over u? Just how? Strangers do not come in and become kings in a kingdom they know nothing about. We cannot say for sure if we are still in the same party, may God help us.”
Another female member(name withheld) lashed out “If this is done Peter Mbah shall know no peace. Do you know we can hardly see this man but these LP guys see him at will? He has refused to see the House members since his swearing-in. The PDP house members cannot even access him. He doesn’t listen to the speaker or the leadership, he does only his will as if we are intruders. He is not a good man but let’s see how it goes.
One of the Labour Party members also argued that there was no basis for the Speaker to withhold the pronouncement of who the new Minority Leaders were. He said, “We have submitted the list of our new principal officer/leadership to the speaker, we have even met with him and he told us to write which we did, yet he sat on it. The Assembly has become an Assembly of Chickens. We are planning to go to court to challenge the reason the Speaker and his party the PDP, will not allow us the minority to have our constitutionally guaranteed leadership in the State Assembly. If it’s the Governor that is behind this he should know that this is democracy and rule of La,w not tyranny or dictatorship.”
Efforts to reach the Speakerhaves proved abortive and numerous of the other House members were evasive when we tried to get their perspective.
The obvious is no peace yet in the State Assembly but some of the lawmakers remain uneasy calm.
Our sources affirmed that the Governor seems to be suffocating the House and it’s only a matter of time, like a time bomb, the House will explode.
