The speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Emmanuel Emeruwa, has warned members of the Assembly that he will do what he wants and won’t allow nobody to tell him how to run the House.
Emeruwa gave the warning yesterday during the sitting of the House as PDP lawmakers insisted that they will not allow the speaker’s Labour party which is the minority party to produce the majority positions in the House.
Emeruwa had recognized Hon. Uchenna Okoro of the Labour party representing Arochukwu state constituency as the majority leader, which led to a protest by the PDP lawmakers.
PDP has 11 members, LP 10 while YPP 2 and APC 1.
The speaker had last week, announced that following an agreement with the YPP and APC members, the LP has become the majority party in the House, but the PDP has vowed never to allow the minority parties take over its rightful positions.
The PDP lawmakers led by Hon. Solomon Akpulonu representing Obingwa East state constituency, rose from their seats and urged the speaker to read the letter sent to the House by the leadership of the PDP in the state.
Insisting that the letter from the PDP leadership has been overtaken by events, the speaker said; “Nobody will dictate to me on how to run the House. I will do what I want.”
After issuing the warning, the speaker suspended the sitting and retired to his office.
Akpulonu stated the speaker must comply with the rules of the House which stipulates that the majority party in the House must produce the majority leader, deputy majority leader, chief whip and deputy chief whip.
According to him, “Mr. Speaker should read the letter from the PDP leadership. PDP is the majority party and must produce the majority positions; this is the standing rule of the House. We can’t allow the minority Labour Party to produce the majority positions. We won’t allow that because it is against the rules of the House. The speaker must do the right thing.”
