Ignore APC lawmakers, factional Speaker tells Ekiti CJ

Factional Speaker, Ekiti State House of Assembly, Hon. Dele Olugbemi (third left), with other lawmakers while addressing newsmen in Ado-Ekiti... on Friday.
| credits: Ekiti State Government

The factional Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dele Olugbemi, has written the state Chief Judge, Justice Ayodeji Daramola, asking him to ignore a request to set up a panel to investigate allegations raised in the impeachment notice to Governor Ayodele Fayose.

He was reacting to a letter written to the CJ by the embattled Speaker and leader of the All Progressives Congress lawmakers in the Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin, on Thursday.

The letter had requested Daramola to raise a seven-man panel within seven days of receipt of the letter to investigate Fayose and his deputy, Dr. Oluosla Kolapo, over allegations of impunity, violence, stalking and other constitutional breaches.

The lawmakers relied on Section 101 of the 1999 Constitution as amended, which according to them, empowers the Assembly to regulate its sittings, including sitting in a public building within the state capital if the lives of members are not safe.

The Majority Leader, Churchill Adedipe, representing Irepodun/Ifelodun Constituency One, explained that the sitting ought to have taken place in the hallowed chamber on April 7, 2015 but members were waylaid by thugs who mounted roadblock and threatened their lives with weapons.

However, Fayose, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, argued that no sitting of the Ekiti Assembly took place on Thursday as claimed by the APC lawmakers.

Addressing journalists on Friday in Ado Ekiti, Olugbemi said the letter directing the CJ to raise the investigative panel did not emanate from the office of the Speaker because Omirin had been impeached since November 20.

“We never wrote any letter to the Chief Judge directing him to constitute an investigative panel, neither was the House involved in any impeachment proceedings against the executive governor of our great state,” he said.

The clerk of the Assembly, Mr. Tola Esan, was at the briefing with the sergeants-at-arm and some members of staff of the assembly..

The old and new mace of the Assembly were also presented to journalists.

Olugbemi went on, “It is common knowledge that all legitimate sessions of any House of Assembly takes place only inside the hallowed chambers of House of Assembly. Indeed, any purported sitting of the House at any other location outside the hallowed chamber of the House of Assembly is null and void and of no effect whatsoever.

“This is more so when such sittings purportedly took place without the principal officers here present with me now.”

The factional Speaker said he had advised the CJ to “discountenance all letters, resolutions, proceedings or processes emanating from Dr. Adewale Omirin or any other person impersonating his person or office.

“I have also copied the Chief Justice of Nigeria, the Director, Department of State Service and the Commissioner of Police so that they can jointly assist with the apprehension of this impostor and his cohorts before they cause further breakdown of law, order and further havoc on Ekiti State and its people.”

Responding to questions, Olugbemi faulted the APC lawmakers for sitting outside the hallowed chamber.

He also debunked insinuations that his security details had been withdrawn.

He said, “My security aides are all still with me. Is it proper to shift the venue of the Assembly? That section is irrelevant to the judgement of the Supreme Court. That is an indication that the only sacred place is the hallowed chambers.”

Copyright PUNCH.