A detachment of policemen have taken over the Abia State House of Assembly complex in Umuahia, following the impeachment of Hon. Chinedum Orji, Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly.
It was learnt that the speaker was impeached over gross misconduct and highhandedness, by 18 out of 27 members of the Assembly who sat at an undisclosed location to implement the plot
The motion for the impeachment was said to have been moved by Chukwudi Apugo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who represents Umuahia-East and was seconded by Okey Igwe of the PDP, who is representing Umunneochi Constituency.
Orji, representing Umuahia Central State Constituency, lost his bid to represent the Ikwuano/Umuahia Federal constituency in the February 25 National Assembly election.
The son of former Governor of the State, Theodore Orji, he lost to the Labour Party candidate, Obi Aguocha.
However, following the Speaker’s removal, security men have sealed off the Assembly complex, leaving legislators to gather in clusters within the premises.
The removal of the Speaker, which was effected earlier in the day, comes on the heels of a recent court order which froze the accounts of the state.
It also adds to insinuations in some quarters of disquiet in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state and surreptitious moves to impeach Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, who has less than a month to hand over the reins of power to the Governor-elect, Dr. Alex Otti.
There were different angles to the impeachment of Orji as well as the reasons for the action. One strand of the story stated that the removal was carried out by 16 members of the Assembly outside the house. The allegation against him was that he and his father Theodore Orji, betrayed the PDP in Umuahia during the governorship election. His supporters however allege that the legislators moved against him because he had not been bringing money from the government to them.
Internal crisis in the ruling PDP is blamed for the party losing the governorship election to the fledgling Labour Party (LP) in March. The impasse also saw the governor losing his senatorial ambition in the February 25 national assembly election.
Speaker Chinedum Orji had lost the National Assembly poll for Ikwuano/Umuahia North/Umuahia South Federal Constituency.
He lost to the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Obi Aguocha.
Announcing the results, the Returning Officer, Prof. Uma Oke, said that the LP candidate polled 48,199 votes to defeat Orji of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 35,196 votes.
He said that Ogbonnaya Obilor of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had 4,042 votes, while Ogbonna Abariukwu of APGA got 2,758.
He also said that Obinna Nwosu of ADC scored 2,386, while Friday Chimaobi of YPP polled 1,013 votes.
Others, including Patience Okorie of NNPP got 644 votes, Christian Ibekwe Christian of NRM got 68 votes, whereas Nnamdi Ogbuagu of APP scored 347 votes.