By Okey Alozie
The four members of the Imo State House of Assembly handed indefinite suspension may have to wait for too long before knowing their fate and subsequent resumption of legislative duties.
This development is as a result of the inability of the committee set up by the Speaker of the House to contact the sanctioned members for investigation and submission of report.
The teeter-totter movement of the members of the House heightened a fortnight ago, when four of them, namely, Honourables Ifeanyi Nnataraonye (Mbaitoli), Nkenna John Nzeruo (Oru East), Chiji Collins (Isiala Mbano) and Uche Oguwuike (Ikeduru) were suspended indefinitely.
At the plenary session held on return from the APC convention in Abuja, a motion by the Majority Leader, Hon Lugard Osuji hinged on alleged unparliamentary conduct, saw the Speaker, Rt Hon Acho Ihim who presided over the sitting dropped the gavel to endorse the suspension.
Consequently, a committee led by Hon Lawman Duruji (Ehime Mbano) was asked to investigate the matter and report back a week later (last week Thursday).
Instead of tendering a report before the House, the lawmakers only met last week to take their long vacation and adjourned till August.
The long adjournment, from Trumpeta findings amounts to abandonment of the sanctioned lawmakers.
Trumpeta learnt that apart from failing to contact the suspended members, the Duruji committee is yet to sit and handle the matter as directed by the speaker.
One of the affected lawmakers, Nnataraonye who lamented how the committee chairman, Lawman Duruji attacked and injured him in Abuja during the convention, confirmed that there has been no invitation from the committee expected to report their findings last Thursday showing that they have been abandoned.
The suspended lawmakers have agreed to go to court to seek redress and consider if the Speaker of the House has the right to suspend a member who has not been charged of any known offence.
According to Nnataraonye, “we will go to court to seek interpretation of the development and justice”.
The implication of the abandonment and long recess embarked upon by the members is that the suspended lawmakers shall not only wait for long before their fate is known but shall be denied all rights and privileges due to a state legislator while they are observing the suspension.
Meanwhile, the member representing Oru East in the State House of Assembly Hon Nkenna Nzeruo has declared that his life is still being threatened by unidentified people suspected to be agents of the government.
The lawmaker said this in Oru West during the reception of Senator Osita Izunaso on Saturday. According to the suspended lawmaker, some agents have been hired to kill him for no justified reason.
“Maybe they want to kill me because I said the truth” he submitted. The embattled lawmaker revealed that since he was physically seen at Abuja Convention, a lot of people working for the government now raise eyebrows whenever the set eye on him and a lot of threat on his life for belonging to the Coalition group. He disclosed that even his colleagues are not happy with him any longer. He further disclosed that he is being trailed daily.
