‘You can’t impeach someone who resigned’ – Lawyers blast Edo Assembly over Agbebaku move

Legal practitioners have faulted the decision of the Edo State House of Assembly to convert the resignation of its immediate past Speaker, Blessing Agbebaku, to impeachment.

The lawyers expressed their concerns shortly after the Assembly on Monday altered the status of Agbebaku’s departure from resignation to impeachment.

Those who reacted included Paschal Ugbomeh, a former Chief Whip of the Edo State House of Assembly, and Afebu Aigbonoga, Esq.

Ugbomeh questioned the legality of the Assembly’s action, asking what offence the lawmakers were seeking to impeach Agbebaku for after he had already resigned from office.

He said it was unclear whether the lawmakers were attempting to impeach Agbebaku as a former Speaker, stressing that a person who had voluntarily left office could no longer be removed from an office he no longer occupied.

According to him, members of the House, as lawmakers, are expected to uphold and apply the law in their actions.

“It is funny to hear that a House of Assembly impeached a former Speaker who had resigned. The man has resigned and there is no office to impeach anymore, except if you are impeaching him as a former Speaker.

“They should wake up to their responsibility. I was a member of that House, and we should do the needful,” Ugbomeh said.

Also speaking, Aigbonoga argued that neither the 1999 Constitution, as amended, nor the established Rules of the House of Assembly expressly provides for the conversion of an earlier resignation into impeachment, particularly after a successor had assumed office.

He explained that Section 92(2)(c) of the Constitution provides for the removal of a Speaker through a two-thirds majority resolution of the House, while Section 306 deals with voluntary resignation from office

Aigbonoga maintained that the two processes are fundamentally different, describing resignation as a voluntary relinquishment of office and impeachment as a legislative process for removing an incumbent office holder.

He said changing a resignation that had already taken effect into impeachment could create serious constitutional and legal questions.

“Once a resignation is tendered and accepted or becomes effective, the office is legally vacant, leaving no prior tenure left to ‘impeach’,” he added.