Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has felicitated with Victor Edoror and Emmanuel Agbaje the new speaker and deputy speaker respectively of the Edo State House of Assembly following their election by a majority of members in the Edo State capital, Benin City.
The Governor who spoke through a statement released by Onogwu Mohammed, his Chief Press Secretary described the emergence of the new principal officers as a welcome development while hoping that it will mark the dawn of a new era of peace and focus for governance in Edo State.
It will be recalled that 17 members of the 24-man Edo assembly elected their new leadership yesterday with a pledge to restore order to the state legislature which had been embroiled in longstanding crises. Before then, 7 members belonging to the PDP and allegedly backed by Godwin Obaseki, the embattled Governor of the state, had taken over the duties of the assembly and purported to impeach the former deputy speaker for declaring support for the APC.
Governor Bello who said his state Kogi is very interested in peace within its neighbour Edo noted that since both states share a long boundary line, any breakdown of law and order in the latter was bound to cause security and other troubles for the former. He therefore urged the new speaker and members of the Edo State House of Assembly to swing into action immediately to restore order to the state legislature and find ways to work with other arms of their government in the best interests of Edo people.
On the fast approaching September 19 Edo State Governorship Elections, the Kogi State helmsman said Edo was an APC state which the roguish PDP wanted to snatch away like a pickpocket eyeing someone’s purse in the market. He assured the Edo APC and her candidate Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu of a resounding victory by the grace of God and declared that he will always stand shoulder to shoulder with them till Edo returned to the fold of progressives in the governing party.
