Tony Osauzo, Benin
The politics of Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki’s second term bid on Thursday swept away the leader of the legislative arm of Esan South East local government area, Ernest Egwemi, who was allegedly removed by five elected councilors for alleged misconduct.
It was learnt that the Chairman of the Council, Hon Peter Aguele, reportedly summoned the councilors at about 1 am to come to his house by 7:30 am where some of them were allegedly pressurised to sign an impeachment document to remove the house leader and then place the Majority Leader, Israel Iyanobor, on suspension.
According to informed sources, Egwemi’s removal is as a result of an allegation that he and some other elected councilors were not working for the second term bid of Governor Godwin Obaseki, an allegation Egwemi has, however, denied.
Meanwhile, Aguele who was sworn-in a few weeks ago as Chairman of the Council by Governor Obaseki, following the state high court ruling that he was the validly nominated candidate at the primary election, did not pick repeated calls to his phone.
The state Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Hon. Monday Osaigbovo, however, said the governor had nothing to do with the removal of the leadership of the council’s legislative arm.
“The governor has no hand in the removal, their removal or not will not affect the chances of the governor for his second term. They were all elected as councilors and what the governor needs for his second term is majority votes. No politician looks for100 per cent votes,” he said.
Reacting to his removal, Egwemi to said: “Can you impeach me with five members? There are four councilors with me and five are with the chairman,” even as he said that though nobody has called him for direction to work for Obaseki, he has announced his support for the governor.