National Daily

Imeagu: Sacrificial lamb in Delta?

The political undercurrent surrounding the pandemonium in the Delta State House of Assembly that culminated into the boisterous removal of the Speaker, Honourable Osita Imeagu, has begun to unfold. Contrary to the superficial reasons adduced by the members of the House, the Speaker may have been removed in preparation for possible by-election to be handled by the governor's loyalist if so ordered by the Court of Appeal, reports SUNDAY ODIBASHI

LAST Tuesday, members of the Delta State House Assembly were observed to be on stage to prove to Nigerians and the international community that nobody has the monopoly of violence. Invariably, the members were witnessed to have demonstrated quite openly that rascality and display of crude coercion could also be part of the proceedings in the law making institution of the state.

The scenario was such that it became difficult to differentiate between honorable legislators and thugs in the open society.
Jungle justice was profoundly applied in the most uncivilized manner in pushing the embattled Speaker, Honourable Osita Imeagu, out of the seat of power in a frenzy of violence. The Deputy Speaker, Honourable Funkekeme Solomon, was also shown the way out.

The quagmire was said to be precipitated by the lingering power tussle between the former Speaker, Osita Imeagu, and the deputy, Solomon Funkekeme, for the control of the House. Solomon was said to be suspended for mobilizing thugs to invade the Assembly. The report of the six-man committee that investigated the invasion of the Assembly by the thugs was said to have found the deputy speaker guilty and recommended his removal.

National Daily gathered from a reliable source that the former Deputy Speaker is a loyalist of the state governor. Solomon was revealed to be enjoying the support of the governor in the power tussle with Imeagu. This was said to have led to the resolution for the removal of both principal officers of the Assembly and their replacement with more amenable loyalists at a meeting last Saturday in Warri.
Both the removed speaker and the deputy have been suspended from the House for three months to allow for investigation into the allegations against them. Honourable Martin Okonta who was sworn in as the Speaker and Honourable Basil Ganagana who went in as the Deputy Speaker, have been considered to be more susceptible to the pre-emptive trend of Delta State politics in support of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan as they await the outcome of the Court of Appeal judgement on the election petition appeal filed by the Action Congress governorship candidate, Chief Peter Okocha, who was illegally disqualified from the April 14, 2007, gubernatorial poll. The former deputy speaker was reported to have pledged his loyalty to the new leadership of the House. Speaking to National Daily, a Lagos-based legal practitioner, who is also a member of the Peoples Democratic Party in Delta State, Barrister Fidelis Osordi, said that what transpired in the Delta State House of Assembly last week was far beyond what the legislators wanted the public to believe. He revealed that the impasse could be traced to the apprehension of state actors in Delta State over the expected judgement of the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin City on the appeal brought before it by Chief Peter Okocha of the Action Congress over the rash ruling of the Election Petition Tribunal that sat in Asaba, which dismissed the petition over his exclusion from the April 14, 2007, governorship election in the State. Osordi noted that there are emerging indications that Okocha has a strong case at the Appellate Court. The case was said to have assumed new dimension when all the evident that the Delta State Election Petition Tribunal rejected were tendered by Okocha and have been accepted by the Court of Appeal.
Apparently, it was said that there arose the phobia that the governor may be removed by the appellate court and so, they did not want former Speaker Osita Imeagu to take over as the acting governor.

Further investigations by National Daily showed that the tribunal's dismissal of the petition brought before it has remained suspect. It was indicated that this became part of the reasons why the House of Representatives have indicated interest in scrutinizing the judgments of the tribunals across the country on the various elections petitions.

Osordi reiterated that there was heightened fear that the court may call for fresh governorship election in the state. He disclosed that the former Speaker was discovered not to be loyal to Governor Uduaghan and may not collaborate in the rigging of the election if he was to assume office as the acting governor.

According to Osordi, “former Speaker Osita Imeagu emerged through democratic process, popularly chosen and widely supported by members of the House of Assembly. He has submitted himself to transparency and due process in running the affairs of the House and the state”. Some observers have therefore said that with this kind of credential, it was expected that Imeagu would be removed before the time to pave way for a team that will be amenable to manipulation or protect the entrenched interests.

National Daily further gathered that the thugs that invaded the House were mobilized and brought from Delta Central. Osordi lamented that “while the invasion of the Assembly has been so dramatized by the members of the House, nobody brought the thugs to book”.

The violent removal of former Speaker Imeagu was declared as being experimental to reposition the political force of the incumbent executive on the anticipated ordering of a by-election by the Appeal Court. Osordi highlighted that during the administration of former Governor James Ibori, the political elite in Delta State agreed to a power shift and Peter Okocha was the favourite candidate.

He maintained that the Urhobos acquiesced that power should be rotated to Delta North where Okocha was said to be prominent. The political machine of the PDP maximally mobilized by erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo, reinforced by the coercive institutions of the state at his behest, was said to be terminally utilized to frustrate Okocha both out of the race and of the PDP. Ibori was said to be opposed to power shift but that due to pressure he was compelled to endorse the rotation of the governor to Delta South where he entrusted power to his extended familial relation. The arrangement was said not to be acceptable to his kinsmen in Urhoboland and other stakeholders in Delta State politics.

That these forces would be thrown up to effect change in Delta State in the direction of popular expectations, was said to have triggered the need to reconfigure the power equation of the institutions of Delta State to be controlled by those that would collaborate with the existing power if the state should go for a by-election after the judgement of the court and Imeagu has been known not to fit into this project, hence the decision to use him as a sacrificial lamb.