Edo APC calls on FG for state of emergency

The Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to declare a state of emergency over what it called the “collapse of governance.” The opposition party in the state said that the call became imperative because “Governor Godwin Obaseki has emasculated the judiciary, crippled the legislature and personalised the executive branch by acting as the sole administrator of Edo State.” His word is the law; he is the lawmaker, the judge and the prison put together.”

The state Chairman of the party, Col David Imuse (rtd.), who made the call while addressing journalists at the party’s secretariat in Benin, added that Obaseki’s “flagrant abuse of power is not acceptable in the 1999 Constitution as amended.”

Imuse stated that though elected democratically, the governor functioned as the sole administrator of the state. Lamenting that over a year into his second term, “Edo is the only state in Nigeria today without a functional legislature.

“What the governor is practising in Edo today is a democratic taboo. And when a taboo is allowed to exist for too long, it becomes a tradition. If this taboo is allowed to be exported to other states, Obaseki as a reference will endanger our democratic culture.

“Meanwhile, this constitution, which our country, Nigeria, is still operating, remains the grundnorm. So, we wonder where Mr Obaseki derives his powers from, as there is no section in the constitution either for a maximum ruler or sole administrator as we presently have in Edo.

“For almost one year, local government administration in Edo State has been thrown into a coma, with the governor’s decision not to conduct elections for chairmen and councillors. For a governor, who daily interfered with the state’s local government councils’ statutory allocations, is it not self-indictment to say that unless he can clear the N60bn debt they owe, he cannot conduct LG elections?”

However, the state Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Andrew Emwanta, in a statement, noted that the issues raised about governance and development by the party were not only a slap on the faces of the citizens of Edo State but a sign of selective amnesia.

He stated, “Edo State, as of today, is perhaps the most peaceful place to live in the entire country with incidences of crime and criminality in the state over the last three months nearing almost zero, and the APC dares to call for a state of emergency in the state?

“Can the Edo APC not see that it should more appropriately direct its call for a state of emergency to the federal government that has reduced the value of Nigerian lives?

“In Nigeria today, you cannot travel from Abuja to Kaduna, Abuja to Keffi, or from Abuja to Minna by road without a 70 per cent chance of being attacked, kidnapped or killed by bandits. Yet, these palace jesters gather in the safety of Benin City, provided by the excellent leadership of Governor Godwin Obaseki, and mouth non-existent chaos.

“The APC wants a state of emergency declared in a state that did not only pay salaries and pensions of state government workers by the 14th of December but also released funds to the local governments to ensure their employees are also paid salaries in time for the yuletide celebrations. While the APC-led Federal Government was struggling to meet their FAAC obligations for the end of the year.

“Does the party want a state of emergency in a state where every flight or bus coming into the state is fully booked with air carriers and road transporters jostling to keep up with the pressure of travellers trooping into the state?”

Punch/Suzan O.