THE Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Kennedy Ibeh, has declared the seat of the member representing Ngor Okpala state constituency, Tochi Okere, vacant.
He asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a bye election to fill the vacancy.
The Speaker also suspended three lawmakers over what he called a dereliction of duty.
The suspended lawmakers are Authur Eguim (Ideato North), Ngozi Obiefule (Isu) and Obinna Okwara (Nkwerre).
At the plenary today, Ibeh said the sacking of the Ngor Okpala representative was in line with the House rules and the 1999 Constitution.
He said that Okere had not attended plenaries for up to one-third since he was inaugurated as a lawmaker in 2019.
Ibeh said the House register indicated that the sacked lawmaker only attended plenaries 29 times in 2019, 14 times in 2020 and none in 2021.
The Speaker said the parliament had received two petitions from Ngor Okpala, urging the Assembly to declare the seat vacant on the basis of non-performance.
Ibeh also said the three suspended lawmakers failed to attend legislative activities on the 2022 budget proposal as submitted to the Assembly by Governor Hope Uzodimma.
With the latest suspension of the three lawmakers, six lawmakers are now suspended.
The Immediate-past speaker, Paul Emeziem, a former deputy governor, Okey Onyekanma and a former minority leader, Ekene Nnodimele, were slammed with indefinite suspension on November 8, the day Ibeh emerged as the Speaker.
