Obaseki: why I can’t help 14 estranged lawmakers-elect

TRACKING___Fourteen estranged lawmakers-elect of the Edo State House of Assembly may not get the help of the Executive to occupy their seats.

Governor Godwin Obaseki has said he is not in a position to help them restore their mandate in the Assembly.

The lawmakers-elect were shut out of the inauguration of the Assembly in 2019, following a power tussle between the governor and his estranged political godfather, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole.

Obaseki said: “Even if I wanted today to bring them back, I don’t have such powers. I wish it didn’t happen. But people were playing god and promising what is not constitutional.

“I am not the one that plant people into the House of Assembly. They, on their own, operated the rules the way it should be. Their seats are now vacant.”

The governor addressed reporters on Monday at the national secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abuja after a meeting with the party’s leadership.

Obaseki, who said he was on a thank you visit to the party’s leaders, explained that the case of the 14 estranged members-elect was still pending in court and that it is the court that will determine their fate.

PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, had urged Obaseki to run an inclusive government.

He advised the governor to bring aggrieved members who might have left his camp for one reason or the other on board with a view to accommodating them all.