From Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
Drama and a rowdy session characterized the Benue Assembly on Monday, as the newly elected members made to elect the speaker of the House.
Our correspondent reports that the Assembly was inaugurated by the state Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia, on Monday.
Shortly after the inauguration, the 32 members, from all Progressives Congress (APC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and Labour Party (LP), went into a session to elect key officials to lead the House.
The session began with nominations which saw Hon. Emmanuel Shimawua from Kyan state constituency, Vandeikya Local Government Area, LGA, nominating Hon. Aondona Dajoh of Gboko West State Constituency in Gboko Local Government, to be elected as Speaker.
He had argued that Dajo is a seasoned politician with versed experience saying he will provide quality leadership to the 10th House of Assembly.
His nomination was seconded by Hon. Lami Danladi from the Ado state constituency. Aondona Dajo had also stood before his colleagues and accepted his nomination to be speaker of the House.
Similarly, Hon Manger McClinton, of the Tarka state constituency nominated Mrs Becky Orpin, representing the Gboko East state constituency.
His nomination was seconded by Rt Hon Cephas Dyako of Konshisha State constituency, Labour Party (LP), who explained that considering zoning arrangement and competence, Mrs Orpin’s antecedents show she has the capacity to lead the house.
Becky Orpin also accepted the offer saying, “I offer myself to serve based on the reasons that have been adduced by my nominator and the seconder.” She said the world is moving towards gender sensitivity and electing one out of the only two female legislators in the house, would be a great idea.
When the 32 House members went into the election choosing the open secret ballot, Hyacinth Aondona Dajoh, of Gboko-West constituency and Becky Orpin, Gboko-East State constituency had a tie with each polling 16 votes.
The members requested that the election be conducted again. At this point, the member representing the Konshisha state constituency, Rt Hon Cephas Dyako, demanded that Governor Alia and his entourage excuse the House before the second election commences.
He said by their presence, the House is being put under pressure to do the bidding of the executive.
The request caused an uproar in the house with some members supporting him, while others rejected his plea.
While the commotion was going on, the Clark of the House, Barr Bernard Nule, gave Governor Alia permission to stay arguing that if the members did not object to his stay earlier, why at a time when there was a tie in the election?
After several debates and the pandemonium in the House, the Clark called for a break to enable members to lobby and consult after which it will reconvene in 10 minutes.
As of the time of this report, the house is yet to reconvene, 50 minutes later.
There are insinuations that the 10th Benue State House of Assembly might be divided among members loyal to the state Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia and those loyal to the leader of the APC, Sen George Akume.