Fayose, lawmakers’ war worsens ...as plot to impeach speaker thicken Albeit indirectly, the All Progressives Congress (APC)-dominated Ekiti State House of Assembly appears to be among the victims of the June 21 governorship election in the state, which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won. With the change of power from the then APC government to the PDP, expectedly many things including power equation and individuals at the corridors of power are to change. The ripples of the change, following the election, which obviously was glaring in the executive arm of government, flowed to the legislative arm even before the October 16 inauguration of the new government in the state. Since then, the legislature has known no peace as it has been neck deep in crises emanating from impeachment allegations, defection, and bribery scam, allegations of persecutions and cries of insecurity of members. The headaches of the House which began with rumoured plot to impeach the Speaker, Dr Adewale Omirin, snaked into forced recess, allegations and counter allegations and above all perceived standoff between the Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, and the Speaker. However, allegations of plan by the House to impeach the governor and another by the chief executive of the state to remove the speaker continue to heat the polity But then, the questions on the lips of Ekiti people are whether the governor has committed any impeachable offence and the possibility of the minority PDP lawmakers removing the speaker from a majority party and imposing a speaker on the majority. As a face-saving mode, the permutation in the APC circles shortly after the party lost the governorship election was that the Assembly which had 25 APC members and only one PDP member would have no qualms impeaching the governor and his deputy, Dr Olubunmi Olusola, to pave way for continuity of APC government to be headed by the speaker. But that soon phased out with internal scramble for power in the Assembly as the hallowed chamber was rocked with an impeachment saga which shook the foundation of the unity among the APC lawmakers. The plot to change the leadership of the Assembly began a few days to the inauguration of the new government when a group of APC lawmakers from the Ekiti North Senatorial District, comprising Ikole, Ilejemeje, Moba, Ido/Osi and Oye local government areas in the Assembly, allegedly mooted the idea of impeaching Omirin. Also slated for removal were the Deputy Speaker, Hon Taiwo Orisalade; the Majority Leader, Hon Churchill Adedipe; and the Chief Whip, Hon Ade Ajayi; among others. The mastermind of the impeachment plot, according to sources, had eyes on ensuring balance in the power equation in the state following the expected change in government on October 16. To them, the change in government which would have Fayose from the Central; Deputy Governor, Dr Olubunmi Olusola from the South; and the Speaker, Omirin, from South; would leave out the Northern Senatorial District from the equation, hence the need to remove the speaker to pave way for a replacement from the North. The source added that the state lawmakers had recently lamented during a visit to a national leader of the party in Lagos that the former governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, treated them with disgust in the last three and half years owing to weak leadership at the legislature and the need for the Assembly leadership to change with the new government. It was gathered that Fayemi’s intervention in the crisis prevented the impeachment from taking place earlier in the mammoth crowd of Ekiti indigenes and outsiders who had come to witness the swearing-in of Fayose for yet another term. However, the defection of the lawmakers became a source of apprehension as the speaker alleged of plan by the PDP to announce and impose a new speaker on the Assembly through the new members. A statement by the Speaker’s media adviser, Mr Wole Olujobi, that day alleged that the six defectors, in a bid to assert their place, were planning to cause crisis in the Assembly by announcing a new Speaker. According to Olujobi, a situation where the minority PDP members will announce a Speaker and lord it over the majority APC members would create anarchy and needs to be avoided. He said: “Ekiti State is set for another crisis again as seven members plan to lord it over 19 members in a supremacy battle that will set the hands of the clock of progress in our state back”. That was why the meaning read into the order by the Speaker that the Assembly should proceed on a one month recess on the day of inauguration of the new government that it was in a bid to prevent the crisis made political sense. But the Speaker hinged the recess of the Assembly on the change in government for the legislative and executive arms to harmonise certain issues. However, the state government viewed the development differently as apart from deny ing any plan by the PDP or its lawmakers to effect change of leadership in the legislative arm, it faulted the recess, describing it as an APC plot to frustrate the PDP government. A statement by the Special Assistant to the Governor on Information and Social Media, Mr Lere Olayinka, said, “By ordering that the Ekiti lawmakers should go on ‘one month recess,’ Dr Omirin is only acting the plan B script of the APC,” to make Ekiti ungovernable for the new government. Olayinka stated that, “the plan is to prevent the governor from making statutory appointments like Commissioners and Special Advisers as well as presentation and passage of the 2015 Budget”. The governor’s aide said the Speaker’s absence at the inauguration of the new government “is a clear demonstration of lack of understanding of his position as the Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly and not the APC House of Assembly. “We therefore wish to counsel the Speaker to see himself more as representing the collective interest of the people of Ekiti State, not that of APC and he should act in accordance with the desires of the people.” But in a spirit of truce, the Assembly suspended the recess five days after, citing overriding public interest and the need to prepare for the screening of Special Advisers and Commissioners to be appointed by Governor Fayose as reasons for the action. Before the legislative arm could settle, a group, the Ekiti Democratic Coalition (EDC), came up with the allegation that 15 APC legislators had received N800 million as bribe from an APC leader in Lagos State to impeach the governor. EDC Coordinator, Comrade Aderemi Ola eye, who alleged in a statement that each of the lawmakers got N50 million while the Speaker received N100 million, stated that: “The lawmakers will be hinging the impeachment on the dissolution of councils’ Caretaker Committees,” adding that the legislators had been instructed to ensure that the state was made ungovernable for the governor. Just as the APC lawmakers minced no words in denying any plot to impeach the governor, Fayose repeatedly distanced himself from any attempt to remove the Speaker, saying “the interest of Ekiti is far greater than personal or individual interest”. The Speaker, alongside his Deputy, Hon Adetunji Orisalade; and the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Hon Churchill Adedipe; at a press conference addressed by 16 APC lawmakers, dismissed allegation that the 26-member Assembly was planning to impeach the governor as spurious. They also dispelled the allegation levelled against the APC lawmakers by the PDP that they received N800 million from an APC leader in Lagos State to oust Fayose. However, the inclusion of a petrol station belonging to the Speaker among the filling stations sealed off in the state last Tuesday for contravening environmental laws appeared to have widened the gulf between the governor and the speaker. This was especially as the speaker described the action as persecution in view of his membership of the opposition APC, saying he fulfilled all necessary environmental laws in the location of the filling station and got necessary approval, wondering why the governor was starting early in the day victimising those who do not share his political belief. Omirin also dismissed what the PDP and some others were wont to make people of the state believe, saying, “my ownership of the business outfit did not contravene the Code of Conduct Bureau’s regulation”. The speaker, in a statement by Olujobi, said attacks on the opponents, particularly the lawmakers, would only create conditions inimical to a cordial relationship between the Executive and Legislature necessary for smooth running of government. Said Omirin: “We are in a season of lies in Ekiti and it will be in our best interest to tread softly, because I don’t think we need these. How to make Ekiti better should be Governor Fayose’s priorit, not to cause division or portray some citizens as desperate and irresponsible.” But Fayose, through the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Idowu Adelusi, who denied any political undertone in the development, said the essence of closing some petrol filling stations within residential areas was to ensure sanity in the state capital and the state in general. Adelusi, who said the order on such petrol stations near school and residential buildings that constituted environmental hazard was for regulation, said “everybody knows the danger if there is fire outbreak as it had happened in some towns and cities”. As the drama over impeachment plot unfolds, the interest of Ekiti people is unity, peace and development as opposed to any step or move from any group or individual to draw back the hands of time.
Posted on: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 10:18:55 +0000
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