Delta State House of Assembly Speaker, Hon. Monday Igbuya, was on Thursday impeached over allegations of financial misappropriation and highhandedness.
But a source informed that the embattled lawmaker might have been dealt with over a statement credited to him that Governor Ifeanyi Okowa had not performed to expectation.
“The governor and his team are not happy with the statement, which they consider a carry-over of the political hostility reserved by the speaker for Okowa, prompting the speaker to leave the Ahmed Makarfi camp of the PDP to that of Ali Modu Sheriff,” the source, who craved anonymity, said.
The governor was not happy with the sacked speaker
Igbuya was removed as speaker by 22 of the 29 members of the house. He was replaced by Sheriff Oborevwori, member representing Okpe Constituency.
The lawmakers also suspended the sacked speaker for three months, while the former majority leader of the house, who has now been replaced by JohnsonErijo, was handed an indefinite suspension.
Curiously, Igbuya had recently denied an allegation that he was about to be impeached.
A statement from the office of the speaker not only distanced the members of the assembly from the impeachment rumour but described the members as h i g h l y responsible and patriotic individuals, who were more concerned with the peaceful co-existence and development of the state than heating up the polity, as being insinuated by a section of the media.
The statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Henry Ebireri, which also came hard on some journalists in the state, particularly denied a report that the ex-speaker beat up a staff member of the Assembly.
“The Rt. Hon Speaker did not exchange blows with any staff,” the statement had read. In the statement, the exspeaker’s aide also defended his principal against allegations of bringing the house into disrepute and ridicule, describing the claim as “an irresponsible vendetta.”
