Edo assembly crisis: Obaseki subverting democracy – Bamidele

Chairman Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (APC EKiti Central) has condemned Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state over alleged invasion of the state assembly complex in Benin City last week.

He described the alleged actions as unlawful, subversive and a damning threat to democracy in Nigeria.

Fielding questions from journalists in Abuja on Sunday,  Bamidele stressed that the continued onslaught on the Honourable Members of the state assembly by Obaseki should be condemned and resisted by all lovers  of democracy because the legislature is an integral and critical component of democracy anywhere around the world.

He maintained that the deliberate and inordinate sabotage of the legitimate activities of the lawmakers in the state legislature is a direct  invitation to anarchy  and this must be promptly halted before the situation is allowed to get out of hands.

“The legislature is the chief means of expressing popular will, a body that can speak on behalf of, and for, the people. It is, therefore, the assembly of the people’s minds and the general will of the populace within a polity,” he stressed.

He added that the desperation of Governor Obaseki to secure a second term in office should not be allowed to desecrate, destroy and totally subvert the legislative institution in Edo state, saying “democratic sustainability demands that political players should moderate and caution their political behaviours in order to safeguard the sanctity of democracy and institutions of democratic governance.”

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