The Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, and the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Blessing Agbebaku, have expressed conflicting views regarding the delivery of an impeachment notice to the deputy governor.
During a plenary session on Monday, the Speaker, Blessing Agbebaku, claimed that the deputy governor had refused to acknowledge the impeachment notice. Consequently, Agbebaku directed that the notice should be served on the Deputy Governor through publication in the State-Owned Nigeria Observer and other national newspapers.
In compliance with the Speaker’s directive, the notice was published in the Nigerian Observer and the Vanguard Newspaper on Tuesday.
Agbebaku explained during the plenary that publishing the notice in newspapers aimed to exhaust all avenues for serving the impeachment notice and eliciting the deputy governor’s response within the seven-day ultimatum set by the House.
However, in response to the Speaker’s remarks, Shaibu denied receiving the impeachment notice from the State House of Assembly, as alleged by Agbebaku. In a letter addressed to the Speaker titled “RE: SERVICE OF IMPEACHMENT NOTICE,” dated March 12, 2024, Shaibu’s Personal Assistant, Charles Olubayo, emphasized that no impeachment notice had been served on the Deputy Governor, let alone being ignored.
Olubayo clarified that Shaibu had been out of Benin and in Abuja since March 3, 2024, and had not returned. He stated that neither the Clerk nor anyone else had delivered an impeachment notice to the Deputy Governor, and consequently, there was no opportunity for Shaibu to acknowledge it.
Olubayo expressed surprise at the decision to publish the impeachment notice in newspapers based on the assertion that the Deputy Governor had ignored a previous notice sent through the Clerk of the House. He urged the Speaker to rectify the public’s misconceptions arising from the plenary session’s discussions to ensure accuracy in the matter.