Given the fact that petitions in this country have often been used as a form of blackmail by disenchanted folks, many of such petitions that come to the public domain are often dismissed.

However, two petitions or grievances concerning abuse of office by the nation’s legislators draw attention for serious concern.

The first is the allegation by contractors working for the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DSOPADEC against members of the Delta State House of Assembly and the second, is the decision of the House of Representatives to restrict funding for the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC on account of its face off with the director-general of the body, Ms. Aruma Oteh.

The allegation that the members of the Delta State House of Assembly are cornering the contracts of DESOPADEC would not have come as a surprise to many watchers of developments in that state.

Only last September, the legislators in an action that took many by surprise, dissolved the DESOPADEC board. The decision was followed by riveting revelations of blackmail amidst intrigues involving members of that board and the legislators over financial dealings and contracts.

Mark and Tanbuwal

At the centre of the revelations was that the legislators were not getting juicy contracts from DESOPADEC and hence their decision to dissolve the board.

Remarkably, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan who was allegedly peeved by the action of the legislators, and notably by the fact that the board had only justly been inaugurated, responded in kind by re-submitting the same members of the dissolved commission to the state assembly.

Boxed into a corner, the members had to attend to the list of nominees but not without the threat of wielding out one or two of the nominees who the legislators felt had challenged the original dissolution.

It was as such not surprising that they coerced one of the nominees, Mr. Michael Diden, representing Warri South, to issue a public apology to them for supposedly abusing the legislators.

Now the alleged immodesty of the legislators has been brought to fore by the petition to the governor on the actions of the legislators.

If true, they are able to have their way because they apparently have sufficiently intimidated the re-inaugurated DESOPADEC board.

It is possible that not all the members of the assembly are involved in this act of legislative blackmail and avarice, and it is as such incumbent on the leadership of the Delta House to move swiftly to redeem the image of the house.

It is not wrong for any man to be a contractor, but no man should use the position of public trust for selfish purposes as members of the Delta State House of Assembly are accused of doing.

Related to the development in the Delta State House of Assembly is the decision of the National Assembly to limit the expenditure of the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC. The decision the legislators claim, arises from the refusal of the president to abide by the resolution of the House of Representatives to sack Ms Oteh from office over her alleged lack of qualification for the position of DG of SEC.

But as everyone now knows, the primary motif of the legislators flows from the beef caused by allegations of bribery and official misconduct raised against the former chairman of the House Committee on Capital Market, Mr. Herman Hembe. Hembe is now facing trial on account of the allegations first raised by Ms Oteh.

The matter of whether Oteh is qualified to hold the office of the Director-General remains debatable. Does her stint in the African Development Bank, ADB, arguably one of Africa’s leading finance institutions, give her the experience to lead SEC? It is a question that the Senate apparently agreed with when the body confirmed her for the position in 2009.

Even if the house now believes that she is not qualified for the position, the impression out there is that the decision to cut off funding for SEC was an act of vendetta. That belief is further fuelled by the fact that the house has dithered on taking decisions on moral issues involving some of its leading members.