Imo Assembly members give Speaker 24 hours to resign

TRACKING>>In its bid to completely take over the leadership of Imo State House of Assembly, th new ‘Speaker’s’ camp, led by Chinedu Offor yesterday, issued the embattled speaker, Acho Ihim, a 24-hour ultimatum to resign his position or face immediate impeachment.

This came after the Deputy Speaker, Ugonna Uzuigbo reportedly resigned his position.

Vanguard learned that the latest move by the Deputy Speaker was to avert the looming impeachment process against all the principal officers of the Assembly.

However, Ihim has dismissed his deputy’s resignation, saying it was not in line with parliamentary procedures, adding that Uzuigbo has not presented his letter of resignation at the floor of the House as stipulated by the rules of the House.

He said: “As a principal officer, do you resign on the internet? If one wants to resign, it should be at the floor of the House.

“Up till now, none of them has communicated to me that he or she has resigned. I want to tell you that there is a procedure for resignation.”

At press time, Vanguard was told that Offor’s group was putting its plans together to ensure that either the Speaker resigns voluntarily or prepares to face them.

One of the lawmakers told Vanguard, “this time around, we are not going to take it easy. The Speaker cannot take us for anything. He must resign or we will do the needful.

“We have now elected our own Speaker and he is now the one in charge of the affairs of the House of Assembly. Ihim’s case will be looked into and soon, we will take a position. It will not belong.”

There has been a long-drawn battle which started on Wednesday between 21 lawmakers of the House and the Speaker, Ihim.

The controversy centred on what the aggrieved lawmakers tagged a unilateral decision by Ihim to recall the council chairmen who were earlier suspended for a reason weaved around the mismanagement of finances.