By Patrick Ahanor
Factional members of Edo state House of Assembly yesterday resumed hostilities after Tuesday’s clash which saw the emergence of ‘two’ speakers for the parliament.
The legislators had been factionalised after speaker Uyi Igbe-led leadership suspended deputy speaker, Festus Ebea, of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and three other lawmakers who recently dumped the APC for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over what it termed “gross misconduct.”
The development led to a parallel plenary headed by Festus Ebea and eight other PDP legislators at about 8.am on Tuesday during which they “suspended speaker Uyi Igbe, and seven others. The faction thereafter elected Ebea as speaker.
Learning of the twist, the Speaker, Uyi Igbe-led 13-member lawmakers stormed the assembly and engaged the faction in a heated debate which later led to hot exchange of blows.
It took the intervention of Edo state police command operatives to save the day.
Notwithstanding, hostilities between the factions surfaced yesterday after the pro-PDP legislators stormed the chamber at about 6.am for the day’s legislative business.
Blueprint gathered that speaker Uyi Igbe-led leadership who got wind of the faction’s action stormed the assembly at about 6.40am and engaged the group in a fight.
The clash however did not prevent both factions from sitting after the state police commissioner, Mr. Folusho Adebanjo, intervened.
Folusho afterwards held a closed-door meeting with the feuding lawmakers for about four hours.
The commissioner, who later spoke to newsmen, said the meeting was aimed at brokering peace among the legislator and urged the politicians to maintain peace at all time.
Speaker Uyi Igbe who read the ruling on the floor of the Assembly asked the affected lawmakers to dismiss themselves from plenary.
But the Minority whip, Hon. Patrick Osayimwen, objected the speaker, saying that they were yet to get copies of the ruling, an observation the speaker concord with.