Nigerian Concord Newspaper
The leadership of the Benue State House of Assembly under Speaker Dajoh Aondoana has been urged to immediately suspend the Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Lami Danladi over her direct involvement in the crimes and political crisis happening in Ado Local Government.
The plea was made by the Concerned Ado Elites, Lagos State Branch during a press briefing held at Golden Prince Hotel, Ikeja area of Lagos State where the leadership of the Benue State House Assembly was urged to investigate the reason behind the public fight which the deputy speaker engaged herself in recently. The group added that the fight which was taken to the House of Assembly happened in the presence of the Honourable Majority Leader of the House who had testified against her. “She should be punished for constituting nuisance in the public since such act shouldn’t be caught with any honourable member of the respected Chamber” the group stressed.
“Mr. Speaker, we beg you to use your good office to investigate why Mrs Danladi went to deceive the House of Assembly that it was the chairman of Ado Local Government, Hon. Oche Sunday Oche, that was fighting her in the public last week even when the Majority Leader of the House had testified to the fact that it was the deputy speaker that ochestrated the public fight” the group said.
Reading out the text of the Press Conference titled:”Ado Political Crisis: Many lies and grievous allegations by Rt. Hon. Lami Danladi against Ado local government chairman, and how she tried to mislead the Benue Assembly with fake petitions”, the President of the Concerned Ado Elites in Lagos, Barrister Daniel Aboh, said it’s time for the State Assembly to stop Hon. Lami Danladi from bringing the respected Chambers into disrepute.
According to the group in a worded statement to the press, Hon. Lami Danladi must be suspended pending the outcome of the Adhoc Committee led by Rt. Hon. Becky Orpine which has been set up to investigate the petition against the local government chairman.
The statement reads in parts: “There are confirmed reports that the Deputy Speaker has been making plans to use her position to hijack the activities of the committee. Mrs Danladi cannot be a judge in her own case. She raised the Motion and the petition with the help of one Nkechi Okafor so she must be suspended in order to prevent her from using her position as deputy speaker to influence the investigation of the Adhoc Committee. We want the House to consider what happened in the case of Otukpo local government where the report of the investigating committee was tampered with.
“To really get to the root of the matter, the House of Assembly must ensure a fundamental principle of fairness and justice in order to stop the Deputy Speaker from influencing the impartiality of the investigating committee in its decision-making.
“It’s on record that the deputy speaker is moving round and boasting that she will influence the Becky Orpine-led Adhoc Committee to submit a report in her favour. But our findings have shown that Mrs Becky Orpine is a woman of honour and integrity, a leader who loves to promote justice and fight injustice so we are sure that she won’t let Mrs Danladi influence the report of her Committee just because she wants to remove the local government chairman unjustly and at all cost”
The group raised concerns over the recent petition which the Deputy Speaker raised against the chairman of Ado Local Government, Engineer Oche Sunday Oche where she forged the signatures of some traditional chiefs in the local government who have come out to the media to deny that they weren’t the ones that signed the said petition.
The group also condemned a part of the petition where Danladi and Nkechi Okafor accused the council chairman of financial recklessness whereas it was the deputy speaker that was asking him to share local government funds with her but he refused.
The group recalled how three of the traditional chiefs whose signatures were forged on the said petition before the House of Assembly against Oche have come out openly to deny their involvement in the petition. “The three Chiefs went on air with recorded videos and expressed their disappointment over how Mrs Danladi fraudulently forged their signatures on her fictitious petition against the chairman ” it noted.
The statement also reads: “We are hereby calling on the Benue State House of Assembly and the Rt. Hon. Becky Orpine-led Adhoc Committee to have an interaction with the following traditional chiefs in Ado Local Government Chief Isaac Ebilima, Igwe Linus and Chief Daniel Nweze so that they can say it with their mouths that Rt. Hon. Lami Danladi and Nkechi Okafor forged their signatures on the petition without their consent.
“The traditional chiefs whose signatures were forged on the petition against Oche by Mrs Danladi in the video stated that there is nothing like illegal detention cell in any part of Ado Local Government as claimed in the petition.
“Mr. Speaker, kindly call for the videos where the traditional chiefs whose signatures Mrs Danladi forged on the petition exposed how the Deputy Speaker has been using one Mrs Nkechi Okafor, a leader of the People’s Democratic Party and co-ordinator of Senator Abba Moro in Ado Local Government to cause crisis in Ezza community.
“How can a ranking lawmaker who was elected under the umbrella of the All Progressive Congress be having secret deals with a PDP leader who is also a former Secretary of the local government under the PDP administration in person of Nkechi Okafor to destabilize the administration of the APC under Engineer Oche Sunday Oche in Ado Local Government just because the chairman has refused to share public funds with her”
The group however called on the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Dajoh Aondoana to ask the Adhoc Committee to invite Nkechi Okafor for questioning so she can explain how the Deputy Speaker has been using her to cause serious crises in Ado Local Government.
“Mr. Speaker sir, in the videos where the chiefs denied their involvement in the said petition before you, you will see where they are calling for Justice over the way the deputy speaker and her accomplice, Nkechi Okafor misled the House of Assembly that they were the ones who signed the petition”
The group also urged the Benue State House of Assembly to investigate why the Deputy Speaker took these people, Prince Omoi Obande, Pastor Aboh Otse Okibe, Hon Mrs Elizabeth Agbese and Elijah Okah to court few days ago. “She has been using her office as the deputy speaker to traumatize these people just because they said they won’t be part of her selfish fight against the council chairman. We are calling on Mr. Speaker to invite these four elders for an interaction so they can explain what they had passed through in the hands of Mrs Danladi” it added.
The Concerned Ado Elites Group urged the Becky Orpine-led Adhoc Committee to ask Danladi to explain to the public the purpose of the Militia she is keeping and sponsoring in Ado Local Government if not to fight a political battle in 2027. “For the sake of record, Hon. Danladi’s association with the militia has caused a serious war between the Ezaa and other communities in Ado Local Government, and we want the House of Assembly to investigate this.
The group also urged the Benue Assembly Adhoc Committee on Ado Local Government issue to also ask the Deputy Speaker to deny the fact that she was collecting part of the allocations of Ado local government since she assumed duties in June 2023 till the time the current chairman of the local government was elected. “She was forcefully collecting part of the allocations of the council from the previous administrator, and this explains why there was no development there until the new chairman came and stopped the idea of sharing public funds with her” the group added.
The Concerned Ado Elites also stressed that from its independent investigation, the local government was able to generate just N1.9million naira as Revenue for two full years just because the Deputy Speaker was on the neck of the then chairman who was sharing the revenue with her following a threat that he would be removed from office if he didn’t comply.
“Our findings also showed that over N6 million had been generated within six months by the new administration of Ado Local Government under Engineer Oche Sunday Oche. We are urging the Hon. Becky Orpine-led Adhoc Committee to take a tour to the local government and verify our claims by looking through the revenue records of the local government for two years before Oche got there and six months after he got there. The former chairman can be called for an investigation too if he will deny how he was sharing local government allocations and revenues with Danladi for two years” the group said.
On insecurity in Ado Local Government, the Concerned Ado Elites Group stated that it has it on good authority that the council chairman, Engineer Oche Sunday Oche was able to procured some motorcycles to fight crimes like kidnapping, Fulani attacks and so on in Ado but the Deputy Speaker approached him to release five of it to her for her personal use, and the chairman bluntly refused to oblige. “We urge the Adhoc Committee to investigate this as it is one of the reasons she is plotting to remove the chairman of her own local government unjustly” the group noted.
Finally, the Concerned Ado Elites Group called on the Inspector-General of Police, the Director of DSS and heads of other security agencies in Nigeria to quickly call the deputy speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Hon. Lami Danladi to order, and also hold her liable if there is any breakdown of law and order in Ado since she has refused to disband her militia which she has been using to terrorise the town