TELL Magazine

Another lawmaker loyal to the state governor, Godwin Obaseki has dumped him and has pledged allegiance to his major challenger, Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the All Progressives Congress, APC. Emmanuel Agbaje who represents Akoko-Edo II constituency in the state House of Assembly, at a rally in Igarra, headquarters of Akoko-Edo local government area, said the current system as being operated in the state, is strangulating them as lawmakers.

Recently, Nosayaba Okunbor, one of the lawmakers representing Orhionmwon local government area, had jumped ship, thereby depleting the number of lawmakers who had aligned with the governor since the June 17 controversial inauguration of the state House of Assembly which had been responsible for the protracted crisis in the legislature.

With the exit of Agbaje, the governor is now left with eight out of the original 10 members loyal to him.

Addressing his supporters, Agbaje lamented that he had been unable to meet his political obligations to his constituents under the present administration of the governor.

According to him, “The only time I can remember that I was a true House of Assembly member was the first one year and five months and that was when Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was governor. In that one year and five months, Adams Oshiomhole approved our constituency projects. I sited one in Ward One; I sited a second one in ward 8, Enwan Mixed Grammar school. I sited one in Ososo Secondary school; they are all there uncompleted.

“Oshiomhole mobilised the contractors with 50 per cent of the value of the contracts and that is where the job has stopped till today. Since then, for the past four years, we have been begging for those jobs to be completed even when we have not got new ones. Is that fair?

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“Today, I am pained because I have wasted years in the House of Assembly without being able to deliver on my campaign promises to my constituents; without being able to meet the slightest of the projections we promised our people because we have a system that doesn’t care about anybody.

“Here, we have an opportunity and this opportunity is very simple; it is either we want to continue like this, but me I don’t want to end my eight years like this. The opportunity is that we get a change, a new system that will now bring out better governance that will benefit all of us; so the choice is for our people and I know that we are not foolish”.

Upbraiding the governor, Agbaje said “They say they did roads in Akoko-Edo, and the World Bank did roads for us. We are happy even though the standard of those roads is nothing to write home about because they are almost all being washed away.

“I want to appeal to all of us; I will not stick my neck into projecting this same system that has tied everybody’s hand”.

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