By Gabriel Enogholase

BENIN—TO forestall being convicted for contempt by the Court of Appeal sitting in Benin,  Edo State, Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Victor Edoror, yesterday, swore in Mr. Sylvanus Eruaga of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as the member representing Etsako West II state constituency in the Assembly.

The swearing-in ceremony which was performed on the floor of the Assembly, is coming barely 24 hours after the Appeal Court ordered Edo State Solicitor General, Mr. Oluwole Iyamu, to produce the Speaker and the Clerk of the Assembly, Mr. Lawson Ugiagbe,  tomorrow for disobeying the court’s directive in its judgment of December last year, to swear in  Eruaga.

With Eruaga’s inauguration, the PDP legislator will represent Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s constituency in the Assembly.

Edoror, while swearing in Mr. Eruaga, said that the action was in line with the Appeal Court’s verdict last December and the issuance of a certificate of return to him.”

It will be recalled that the  state Election Petition  Tribunal and the appellate court last year invalidated the April 11, 2015 Assembly election of the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate,  and ordered the immediate swearing-in of  Eruaga, being the first runner up at the poll.

However, Eruaga’s inauguration became a subject of controversy after Speaker Edoror refused to swear in the lawmaker-elect, insisting that the House was investigating the Certificate of Return issued by INEC to Mr. Eruaga which he alleged was faked.

Dissatisfied with the Speaker’s posture, Eruaga, through his counsel, Dele Igbinedion, returned to the appellate court during which he initiated forms 48 and 49, urging the court to commit  the Speaker to prison for disobeying its order.