The leadership of the Imo State House of Assembly has unceremoniously removed the majority leader.
Hon. Uche Oguike, believed to be close to the deputy governor, was removed to clear the way for Eze Madumere’s impeachment.
Uuproar erupted in Assembly during a plenary on Thursday when the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Acho Ihim, after the motion of adjournment, announced the removal of the Oguike.
Ihim reportedly announced Oguike’s removal when the legislators were already making their way out of the chamber without offering any reason as to what offence he may have committed.
A lawmaker from Orlu zone who preferred anonymity revealed that Speaker’s action may not be unconnected with an impeachment plot against the Deputy Governor.
He revealed further that since the project of unseating Madumere was sold in clandestine meetings, it has remained a hard nut to crack because of the timing, lack of cogent reason since he has not been found wanting in the discharge of his duties.
He said that Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and his henchmen may have seen in the Majority leader’s stance against the plot as an impediment and that Ihim who is said to droped his political ambition of vying for any political office at all may have chosen to damn every consequence to carry out the Governor’s request by ousting Oguike for a fee.
Some newspapers and radio stations in Imo have been reporting the plot to impeach the Deputy Governor which they said was first mooted at Ama-imo in one Charles Amadi’s country home at the instance of Okorocha where 18 legislators were in attendance and purportedly promised over N1 billion if they are able to deliver. The second meeting, the media reported, was said to have held in Governor’s lodge with a follow up at G-Towers hotel, new Owerri, Imo State.
One Lugard Osuji is also mentioned as one of those spear-heading the impeachment move obviously to sacrificise Owerri zone agenda having been promised speaker of Imo state House of Assembly in 2019.
But some legislators have vowed to resist impunity in the House .
