Early last week, the plot started to take shape. Abadula Gemeda, speaker of Parliament, was given notice to leave a state-owned home that he had occupied for a number of years near Olympia by officials with the Ethiopian Housing Corporation. Abadula had been its board chairman in the late 2000s while it was still known as Housing Agency.
A individual connected to the household said that his family left the home on Tuesday. A second family member confirmed that he had previously resided with friends before moving into a leased villa off Africa Avenue (Bole Road) on Saturday. On Saturday, the Reporter and the online journal Addis Standard both revealed the historic news that a Speaker of Parliament had submitted his or her resignation.
If this is the case, Abadula will make history by stepping down publicly from his position as speaker of Parliament for the first time in the 22-year history of the legislative chamber under the EPRDF. Even those closest to him, however, raise more questions than they do answers about what led him to resign from office. The Speaker refuted the claim in an interview with Fortune on Saturday. Shiferaw Shigute, head of the EPRDF Council, informed the VOA that he is unaware of a resignation letter sent to the party’s executive committee, which used to support his denial of the reports.
However, none of the official sources in the government of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, including Minister of Information Negeri Lencho (PhD), called the stories “wrong and inaccurate.” Negeri Lencho (PhD), the minister of Government Communications Affairs Office, was one of the few official sources in Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn’s administration who did not denounce the reports as untrue and misleading. The rumors about his departure first arose on Monday, October 9, 2017, three days before lawmakers returned after a three-month break.
He informed some of the EPRDF’s top leaders of his plan to retire, according to a senior EPRDF member.
According to the Working Procedures & Code of Conduct of Parliament, in the event that the Speaker leaves office prior to the end of the House’s working session for any reason, the current Deputy Speaker will serve as the chairman of a committee formed to elect a new Speaker from among the House’s members.
