THE Anambra State House of Assembly has suspended the member representing Ayamelum Constituency, Bernard Udemezue, following his social media post on lawmakers’ allowances and criticism of the state’s security outfit.
The suspension, announced during Tuesday’s plenary in Awka, came after a motion of urgent public importance raised by Tony Moubike, representing Aguata II Constituency, according to Punch Newspaper.
The development followed the Assembly’s order to the House Committee on Rules, Business, Ethics and Privileges on Tuesday, August 19, to further deliberate on Udemezue’s case and submits its findings today.
The lawmakers had argued last Tuesday that Udemezue’s posts contained “damaging content” that could tarnish the image of the Assembly and jeopardise security in the state.
The Assembly Speaker Somtochukwu Udeze subsequently referred the matter to the House Committee on Rules, Business, Ethics and Privileges for further investigation, with a report expected today.
Reacting to the accusations in an interview with Radio Nigeria, Udemezue defended his actions, saying he was only fulfilling a campaign promise of transparency.
He revealed that constituency allowances for lawmakers had recently risen from N7.5 million to 10 million quarterly.
The lawmaker also accused his colleagues of trying to silence him to prevent their constituents from knowing what they earned.
The embattled lawmaker further accused the Assembly of failing in its oversight of the executive.
He alleged that the Udogachi security outfit, established under Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s administration, was involved in abuses.
According to him, he was removed as Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Affairs after an oversight visit to the outfit’s headquarters, where he uncovered cases of unlawful detention.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M