Tony Osauzo, Benin
A group, Joint Action for the Advancement of Democracy in Edo (JAADE), has faulted the rule of the minority over the majority in the Edo State House of Assembly.
Addressing journalists in Benin City, the leader of the group, Mr. Aiyemenkhue Edopkolo, noted that the state was fast degenerating into a theatre of war by the action of whoever was responsible for the action taken by the few members of the Assembly.
He said stakeholders were worried, especially about the violence that followed the midnight inauguration of nine out of 24 members-elect on June 17, during which some members-elect were assaulted at a hotel in Benin.
“This is clearly a case of conjuring minority rule in an Assembly that is organically positioned as the melting pot of democratic ethos, and the indefatigable symbol of democracy all over the world.
“We believe that Edo is a congregate of some of the most enlightened Nigerians, and thus view the motor park-styled inauguration of the Assembly as a generational disgrace that some nine members in a show of unnecessary bravado outplayed their colleagues in an unholy hour to install minority rule in the Assembly.
“This in our view, is most uncivilised, barbaric, and a threat to democracy and peace. This is happening at a time when Nigerians are in a sober reflection of the watershed of June 12, 1992 elections, when some nationalists shed their blood to regain democracy from military rule,” the group said.
It condemned the varying tendencies behind the impasse in the Assembly and called for the proper inauguration of the house, adding “we demand immediate and unconditional restoration of the ideal democratic order, where a proper inauguration for the 24 members-elect will be done freely and fairly.”