…As thugs allegedly invade Assembly
The crisis rocking the Ondo State House of Assembly took a fresh turn on Thursday as the Speaker, Olamide Oladiji, and the Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Olatunji Fabiyi, gave conflicting accounts over the alleged impeachment process against the Speaker.
While Oladiji declared that the impeachment move had been dropped following the intervention of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and other leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Fabiyi insisted that the process was still ongoing and that there was no going back.
Speaking with journalists, Oladiji said the matter had been resolved after the intervention of the governor and APC leaders.
He said the lawmakers were expected to hold a parliamentary meeting, insisting that there was neither an impeachment notice nor an ongoing impeachment process.
“There’s nothing like impeachment process because the issue has been resolved and there is no impeachment.
“Mr Governor and other leaders of the party have already intervened, and today we are supposed to have our parliamentary meeting.
“So there’s nothing like impeachment notice. There’s nothing like impeachment process, and we were able to resolve the whole matter,” he said.
However, Fabiyi dismissed the Speaker’s position, describing reports that the impeachment process had been suspended as misinformation.
He maintained that the lawmakers were still determined to remove Oladiji as Speaker despite the intervention by Governor Aiyedatiwa.
“We have been hearing news that we have disembarked on the process. This is a lie; that is misinformation.
“We are still on it. He can’t be our Speaker again. Although the governor has been speaking with some of us, that does not stop the impeachment. There is no going back,” Fabiyi said.
Alleged invasion
The development came amid reports that some suspected thugs had invaded the premises of the state House of Assembly in Akure while lawmakers were inside the chambers.
Oladiji, however, denied inviting thugs to the Assembly, saying the individuals were youths from his constituency whom he had invited to collect recruitment forms from his office.
According to him, only three youth leaders were invited and they were unaware of the crisis within the Assembly.
“I have about three of my youth leaders that I invited to come and pick forms for recruitment, but unknowingly to them, they don’t know what is going on in the House of Assembly.
“Just three of them. Some of the members approached them and asked them the reason why they are at the House of Assembly. They are not new and have been coming to the House of Assembly.
“But they insisted that they don’t want to see them in the premises,” he explained.
Oladiji said he later came out of his office to pacify the lawmakers, explaining that the youths were his constituents who had visited the Assembly previously without harassing anyone.
He said the lawmakers nevertheless insisted that the youths should leave the premises.
However, sources within the Assembly alleged that the individuals were suspected thugs who came from Ondo town, the constituency of the Speaker.
According to the sources, one of the lawmakers, Jide Oguntodu, representing Akure South, reportedly noticed the presence of the unfamiliar individuals and questioned them about their mission at the Assembly.
The individuals were said to have identified themselves as being from Ondo town but could not provide a satisfactory explanation for their presence.
The lawmakers subsequently ordered them to leave the Assembly premises.
Sources further claimed that the Speaker, after being informed of the development, came out of his office and denied inviting the suspected miscreants.
He was, however, said to have acknowledged that one of those asked to leave was his personal assistant, whom he said was known to members of the Assembly.
Following the incident, the lawmakers reportedly held an emergency meeting at the office of the Majority Leader.
The situation also prompted the deployment of a detachment of armed operatives from the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit to the Assembly complex to provide security for the lawmakers.
The conflicting positions by the Speaker and the House spokesman have further deepened the uncertainty surrounding the leadership of the Ondo State House of Assembly, with attention now focused on whether the reported intervention by the governor and APC leaders will resolve the dispute.
