The Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Emmanuel Emeruwa has refused to swear in Aaron Uzodike of the People’s Democratic Party as Member representing Aba North in the state assembly. This action is in total disrespect for the judgment of the Court of Appeal that sacked the Labour Party lawmaker, Destiny Nwagwu who was earlier declared as winner by INEC.
A Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos had sacked Nwagwu as Aba North State Constituency lawmaker and ordered that Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should withdraw an earlier Certificate of Return handed over to him, after the judges declared the petitioner, Aaron Uzodike, as the winner of the March 12, 2023 state assembly election.
However, with the support of the Speaker, who is also a member of the Labour Party despite PDP having the majority in the house, Nwagwu threatened to resume sitting, citing the judgment of the Supreme Court, which validated the election of Governor Alex Otti, which was the same ground on which Uzodike equally approached the Appeal Court.
After the 2023 elections, in Abia State House of Assembly, the PDP won 11 seats, Labour Party won 10 seats, YPP got 2 seats while APC won only 1 seat. Upon inauguration of the House of Assembly, Abia State Governor, Alex Otti was present at the assembly complex to ensure the emergence of a Labour Party Speaker, Emmanuel Emeruwa.
Naturally, the PDP should then produce the Majority Leader of the Assembly, since they have a majority of the assembly seats. But the Speaker, Hon. Emmanuel Emeruwa of of the Labour Party instead made a member of Labour Party (which is in the minority) as the House Majority Leader. In essence, a lawmaker from a party in minority is serving as leader of the House (a post reserved for the party in the majority).
With the sack of Labour Party’s Destiny Nwagwu by the Court of Appeal in favor of Hon. Aaron Uzodike of PDP, it brought the number of PDP legislators in the Abia Assembly to 12, while those of LP further reduced to 9.
However, the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon. Emeruwa (LP) apart from refusing to unaugurate the PDP member-elect since November 2023 despite being served the CTC of the judgement and shown the Certificate of Return by INEC, has also failed to allow the PDP produce the House Majority Leader.
In all these glaring disobedience to the judgment of the court of appeal by the Labour Party and the State House of Assembly Speaker, the Abia State Governor, Alex Otti has not made a statement neither has the national leadership of the Labour Party or its national leader, Mr. Peter Obi made a public statement on the subject matter.