 And straight now to EIMO State where the House of Assembly has suspended three members indefinitely. The Speaker of the House, Honorable Kennedy E.B., announced this on first day. The members are Arthur E. Grimm, who represents Ida Turnoff constituency. Ngozi Obiefole from ISU and Obinna Okwara, who represents Nkwere. The Speaker also declared the seat of the member representing Ngookbala State vacant. Now, the reason given was that when the governor presented the 2022 budget, the House promised to give it an accelerated hearing. These lawmakers ignored to participate in the seat in, and the Speaker was angry with the action. Therefore, they were suspended. Meanwhile, supporters of the suspended lawmakers from the different constituencies say they would protest against the suspension of their representatives at the State House of Assembly. Now joining us now is the publisher of CKNESA, Chris Onwander. Good evening to you, Chris. Many thanks for joining us on the news now on Clause TV Africa. Merry Christmas to you. Let's try and understand some of the issues in EIMO State. From what we hear, they were suspended because they did not attend the governor's budget presentation. Is this legal, or do you think there is more to this than meets the eye? We also understand that the primary responsibility of every lovemaker is lovemaking. And they also have responsibility of our side functions on the executive, apart from constituencies of the project as well. Then also, one of the cabinet reasons why they are also elected is also to be able to pass the look at the project and the project of the executive. One of which is coming of the governor to the State House of Assembly to present the project. So if they are not in plenary, then they must have the project reasons to be at plenary while they are wearing there. And if the speaker finds it, the whatever reason that they are given that it is not authentic enough to wear and they are not being there, the State House of Assembly has the right to take any action against any member who refuse to attend such an important event. But let us also look at the point of what work to look at is that what constitutes a poem, because that is also another angle that we look at because I don't think there's any law that says that every single member of that House or every single legislative morphe in that plenary at any given point in time during any debate on the floor of the House. I'll take you to the National Assembly. What constitutes a poem of the National Assembly is one thought of every member of the Senate or every member of the House of Representatives. If it's going to be a joint session of the National Assembly as well, then it's going to be one thought of every member of that assembly that constitutes the poem. So under the circumstances for that emo state, I don't know whether there's any breach in the members not attending. Then not also forget that emo state that we're having some political issues, especially in the State House of Assembly or preset, which led to the impeachment of the poma speaker. But that to me is what we need to look at. Then that of declaring the seat of a member of the House from Ungo Paola. Well, I know that his speaker will have the rights to do that. If, because at any given point in time, in the life of every House of Assembly or legislative House, there is a minimum number of days that a member is expected to seat. If he doesn't meet that requirement, then he must have breached the rules of that particular House, or even the National Assembly or the Senate or the House of Representatives. And if he doesn't meet that, then it can also be a vacant. I think that is what happened in this case. And as I said, I don't know whether this is conspiring to break it or just following the rules of the House. All right, I really need to understand something right now, Chris. So why is this particular scenario different? Because we see these as a usual outlook even at the National Assembly, where members are not consistent with their presence. Don't you think that this particular punishment might be a bit too grievous? What do you think, Chris? For me, I think that it's rather sad and unfortunate that when you look at, anytime you look at where the camera pans in the House of Representatives and Senate, you see the number of empty seats. I will continue to wonder where the senators and the House of Representatives may not have gone to. Empty seats everywhere. But constitutional, as I said, the most important forum of that legislature is one-third of all the members. So if one-third of the members are there, they can sleep. But that does not bring in repose to debate because every member of that Senate or House of Representatives or even states as well as some of the supposed to participate fully in every debate that goes on in there. And that is only where you can get a much, much better, robust legislation. But what we have, we just have our members just offended ourselves. So we will travel from trouble out of the country and they don't even attend plenaries. All they just wait for is at the end of every month, they get their alatt and the rest of them. And that is it. That is not good enough. If what the English speaker had done is constitutional as it were, then I think that the Senate and the House of Representatives is also full of truth that any member of the House of Representatives that refused to attend sit-ins at any given point in time did not meet up that intent. There is a need for them to declare that seat. There are so many Nigerians out there who want to occupy this seat and be able to do the needful. But the situation where you don't see them attending plenaries is quite unfortunate. All right, Chris, before we let you go, so would you say this particular development is actually a welcome one? And what other lessons are there to be learned? The lessons to learn there is that people should not see the legislative arm as just a place where you just go to retire. And that is what it has come to. You just see every governor that finishes his term, the next thing you see him finding interest in the Senate and they just pick up the seat and they don't want to attend plenaries. So we should be able to import as a law, as a law. Each of the houses, as I stated, the Senate and the House, as well as the various houses of assembly, have their laws binding the number of these that the members should see. And if you don't be able to meet up that seat, I think that law should be improved. And everywhere. So to me, what is happening in Nimo State is a very, very interesting one. And I believe that other state houses of assembly should follow suit and make sure that their members attend plenaries. That is what they are paid for. These guys are collected a huge amount and the salaries or whatever you name it. And at the end of it, you don't see them attending and contributing positively to legislative matters. This should be a commitment for all state houses of assembly and national assembly. All right, we must say a very big thank you to Chris Wando. He is a chartered conciliator and publisher of CKMDs. Many thanks for sharing your input concerning the issues at the Nimo State House of Assembly. Chris. Thank you very much for having me. I'm very pleased to have you. You too, Chris. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.