Edo Crisis: We won’t appeal court decision on Edo Assembly —Senate

The Senate has said it has not taken any decision to appeal the High Court ruling which restrained the National Assembly from taking over the legislative duties of the Edo State House of Assembly.

The two chambers of the nation’s parliament had shortly before embarking on their annual recess penultimate week,  passed separate resolutions to assume the roles of the state’s legislature if Governor Godwin Obaseki failed to issue a fresh proclamation letter for the proper inauguration of the 7th Edo Assembly.

A Federal High Court in Abuja had last Wednesday ordered both the Senate and the House of Representatives and their agents to halt their plan until the determination of a pending suit before it.

Justice Taiwo Taiwo made the order at the resumed hearing in the case instituted by the Edo State Government to challenge the directive by the two chambers of the federal parliament to the governor.

The House of Representatives through its Chairman, Committee on Media, Benjamin Kalu, faulted the court verdict and pledged to challenge the ruling.

Kalu had said, “This is like the National Assembly telling the President not to present the National Budget or like the Executive stopping the Courts from giving a ruling or judgment.

“We must respect it for now the National Assembly will surely appeal the ruling,” he had stated.

However, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Adedayo Adeyeye, told our correspondent in an interview that the leadership of the red chamber had not taken any decision to appeal the court’s verdict.

Adeyeye in a telephone interview said the upper chamber would not take any decision on the matter until members resumed from their current recess.

He said, “I can see that the House of Representatives already said it would appeal the ruling. We have not taken such a decision in the Senate.  Every action on it as well as on any other matters would wait until we are back next month.”

The Senate Spokesperson had told our correspondent last Sunday that the leadership of the red chamber might not recall its members who are currently on annual recess to discuss the recent development on the Edo State House of Assembly crisis.

He had also said that the latest developments on the issue did not warrant any urgent need to reconvene in order to review the one-week ultimatum, which expired on Tuesday last week.

Adeyeye had noted that the Edo Assembly crisis was important and could be a threat to democracy but that it was not an urgent matter that could not wait till the lawmakers resumed next month.

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