Crisis Rocking Ebonyi State House Of Assembly Enters Another Level As The Assembly 'Ceases To Exist'

Ebonyi State house of assemble ceased to exist constitutionally following the decla­ration of four law­makers’ seats va­cant by the Assembly.

The Ebonyi State At­torney-General and Com­missioner for Justice, Dr. Ben Igwenyi disclosed this yesterday while reacting to the action of the Assembly which on Wednesday declared four seats vacant for defecting to Labour Party after the PDP primaries.

He said that the House shot itself on the foot in a bid to achieve their goals, say­ing that according to section 91 of the Constitution, state House of Assembly must be constituted with at least 20 members and at most 40 members to sit.

According to him, “There is presently no House of As­sembly in the state as section 91 of the 1999 constitution stipulates that a State House of Assembly must constitute of not less than 24 members and not more than 40 to op­erate constitutionally”.

He noted that the House has 24 members and when four seats were declared va­cant, it would then consist of 20 members, which is not up to the number that can form a valid Assembly.

He noted that there is no House of Assembly in the state until a bye-election is held to make the number up to 24 again.

“If they were sensible enough, they would have suspended the affected members to achieve what­ever objective they had but the House has dissolved it­self now.

“The section 109 sub sec­tion 1 (g) of the 1999 con­stitution which the Speaker quoted in making the reso­lution, was not duly compre­hended and followed by the members before making the resolution” he stated.