Delta Sacked Speaker In Battle To Reclaim Speaker's Seat
ASABA, DELTA, June 01, (THEWILL) - As the fight to swear in member elect, Delta State House of Assembly, representing Ika South constituency continues to generate more controversies, the sacked speaker of the House, Mr. Martin Okonta has threatened to stage a come back to reclaim his former position as speaker. The Appeal court sitting in Abuja had on Wednesday 12, May 2010 sacked the Speaker, Mr. Martin Okonta ruling that he was not the duly sponsored candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2007 State House of Assembly elections in the state. Chairman of the panel, Justice Uwani Abba-Aji who led Justices Jimi Olukayode Bada and Abdu Aboke in his judgment ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to issue the cross appellant, Kingsley Philip Nonye, the certificate of return and the same time be sworn in with immediate effect.Mr. Kingsley had dragged the embattled Speaker representing Ika South constituency to court challenging his candidature in the 2007 state House of Assembly election.THEWILL reporter reliably gathered that the embattled sacked speaker has been in a contentious battle with the acting speaker, Mr. Basil Ganagana who is not disposed to relinquishing the speakership seat he (Okonta) claims he ‘temporarily’ vacated.
The former speaker has threatened that as soon the House which is on three weeks recess reconvenes, he will move to take over his seat. Assembly sources who confided in our reporter said that on Saturday shortly after the Democracy Day celebrations, Mr. Okonta met the acting Speaker at the state legislative quarters, warning Mr. Ganagana to vacate the seat as he was no longer comfortable with the games the House was playing since he vacated the position.The source informed that, this almost degenerated into a scuffle between the acting speaker and the embattled former speaker.
It was learnt that Delta State Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan who became disturbed by the Okonta’s actions, swiftly invited the duo for consultations.All effort to reach the acting Speaker, Mr. Ganagana proved abortive but his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Mr. Patrick Edema said, the embattled sacked speaker has indicated his intention to return to his former position as speaker. When asked in what capacity Mr. Okonta intends to stage a come back to his former position, the CPS declined comments.However reacting on behalf of Okonta, the CPS to the former speaker, Mr. Frank Whyte Osabohien, debunked the allegation that Okonta was staging a comeback, he said he was unaware of the move.