The Inspector-General of Police. (IG) has been asked to direct the Anambra State Commissioner of police to immediately reopen the sealed State House of Assembly.
In a joint statement by Campaign for Democracy (CD), and the Human Rights, Liberty Access and Peace Defenders Foundation (HURIJE) by Dede Uzor A Uzor Chairman of HURIJE and national publicity secretary of CD, said it is constitutional for the House to affect leadership change if the leadership breach the laws of the House.
The rights groups said the continued sealing of the House amount to a negation of the construction and bastardisation of the democratic principle.
The groups said there was need for the sanctity, rights and independence of the three organs of Government to be maintained if our democracy must thrive.
"The Executive should not use the Police or any other security operatives to undermine the legislature and the Judiciary as we have seen in recent time even at the National Assembly.If the Governor is doing well and has no skeleton in his cup board, he should not be afraid of who emerged the Speaker. Afterall 95 percent of the members are APGA members" they said.
They expressed displeasure over what is happening in APGA now, especially the sham that was the primaries, saying most of these crises emanated from the incompetent handling of the Party's recent primaries.
They condemned the party leadership for the suspension of the House members without fair hearing from them.
"That is why most people were agitated that the chairmanship of the party should come from other State not Anambra to ensure fairness and equity. We are not happy with the cash and carry primaries, where the leadership allegedly extorted money from aspirants and later handed the ticket to predetermined individuals.The cause of the crisis in the House of Assembly is a spill over of the primaries. If the primaries were free and fair, we don't think anybody would be bothered. The political class should always stick to the rules of the game to ensure stability of the polity" the group opined.
