Pdp caucus plots to remove Ekiti Speaker

Pdp caucus plots to remove Ekiti Speaker

apc: police are culpable• ’It’s not true’
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus in the Ekiti State House of Assembly, backed by Governor Ayo Fayose, is strategising to remove the Speaker, Dr.Adewale Omirin,The Nationgathered yesterday.
This followed the controversial “sitting” by seven PDP lawmakers in the House of Assembly to “screen” and “clear” three commissioner-nominees.
The seven PDP lawmakers and three unidentified persons, who posed as lawmakers, also “ratified” Fayose’s list of appointees for chairman and members of caretaker committees for the 16 local governments.
The commissioner-nominees and caretakers were sworn in on Monday by Fayose, few minutes after being “cleared”.
A member of the PDP caucus, Adeyinka Adeloye, said the lawmakers have the constitutional power to impeach the Speaker and change the House leadership to “reflect the present realities in the state”.
Speaking in an exclusive chat withThe Nationyesterday, Adeloye who represents Ikole 1 Constituency, said the lawmakers were constitutionally empowered to “change, arrange, re-arrange, align and realign the leadership of the Assembly”.
Adeloye, who was one of the six All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers who defected to the PDP, said the people should expect a change of leadership in the House to alter the power configuration of the state.
He added that the House’s standing order recognised the power sharing arrangement of the principal officers –in line with the senatorial districts they come from.
According to him, Omirin’s continued stay as Speaker is no longer sustainable, following Fayose’s emergence as governor.
The lawmaker said Omirin, who is from Ekiti South Senatorial District, would have to go since the Deputy Governor, Olubunmi Eleka, is also from the same senatorial district.
Adeloye said: “You know that the governor is from Central, the deputy governor from the South and at the same time, the Speaker is from the South.
“The House has the power to change leadership and there is no novelty about this. Remember the Second Assembly had four Speakers and the Third Assembly had two and if this happens again, it is not something new.
“But the whole thing depends on the leadership of the Speaker. If the Speaker has the acumen, the creativity, he can still hold fort. We were in the APC together before and he should not be crying foul now.”
Adeloye denied the allegation that the PDP lawmakers had been bribed to impeach Omirin.
He claimed that their action at Monday’s plenary was in tandem with the wishes of their constituents.
“This is the aggregate preference of our people, 26 House members against the will of the people? I want to tell you that I was an APC man to the core; in fact, I voted for Fayemi at the last governorship election but the people of my constituency said they want me to go to the PDP.
“The people of my constituency voted for Fayose that is simply indicating that they wanted change and the bribery issue does not arise at all,”Adeloye added.
When asked whether or not the PDP lawmakers’ action could stand, the lawmaker said: “Let them go to court; the House can regulate itself. In the absence of the speaker and the deputy speaker, we have the right to appoint a speakerprotemporeto preside and that was what we did.”
The police have denied complicity in Monday’s “sitting”.
Police spokesman Victor Babayemi absolved the command of blame.
Babayemi said the police did not take sides with any of the contending parties “but was carrying out its constitutional and statutory functions of forestalling the breakdown of law and order”.
The police spokesperson denied the allegation by the APC that its lawmakers, who heard of the illegal sitting, were turned back by mobile policemen deployed in the Assembly complex.
He refuted the claim that armed policemen and PDP lawmakers held the Clerk of the House, Tola Esan, hostage and forced him to surrender the mace with which the “sitting” was carried out.
Babayemi said: “We have nothing to do with the mace or its custody.
“It is not correct to accuse the police of any complicity in what transpired at the Assembly because all what we were doing was to ensure that there was no breakdown of law and order.
“The policemen who were at the Assembly complex on Monday were there to perform their duties.
“We are always proactive because when we see any problem coming, we always try our best to avert them.
“All these happenings call for serious concern. I want you to know that we have a police post at the Assembly complex but we had to deploy more personnel to forestall any breakdown of law and order.
“And on our part, we are doing our best that there is no breakdown of law and order.
Responding to a question on why some APC lawmakers were allegedly prevented from entering the Assembly on Monday, Babayemi said the police had no reason to do so because “they are not partisan”.
“The allegation that we prevented some people from entering the Assembly complex is not true.
“We are not siding with any party, all we are after is maintenance of peace and prevention of breakdown of law and order.”
The State APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said the police cannot exonerate themselves from the “illegality” carried out on Monday.
Olatunbosun, who featured on a live interview programme on ADABA 88.9 FM, Akure, which was monitored by our correspondent yesterday, said the police were culpable for giving security cover to a “sitting” that contravenes the constitution.
He said the alleged partisanship of the police encouraged the desecration of the Assembly by the PDP lawmakers.
Olatunbosun, a former Commissioner for Information, said Ekiti was sliding into chaos and anarchy.
He decried what he called the “decimation of the Judiciary and the Legislature” in the state.
The APC spokesman said the purported sacking of the Speaker’s aides was an unprecedented illegality.
He said the action means that the governor can sack the aides of the chief judge.
Olatunbosun said the blackmail of the APC lawmakers by Fayose’s loyalists set the tone for the latest crisis in the state.
He insisted that the allegation that the 19 APC lawmakers were bribed was sheer blackmail that was illogical and untrue.
Olatunbosun said: “Blackmail is the stock in trade of Fayose and his followers and we are not surprised at all.
“His knack for blackmail has no limit and if he and his supporters are blackmailing the APC lawmakers, we are not surprised.
“There are rules and procedures guiding screening and ratification of nominees by the House.
“Fayose’s commissioner-nominees were not screened, their resumes were not scrutinised and we don’t know if their credentials are genuine.”
The APC Vice Chairman in Ekiti South Senatorial District, Kayode Babade, who also spoke on the programme, said with the sealing of the Assembly, showed that Ekiti was under siege.
He maintained that the governor lacked the power to sack the aides of the speaker and the deputy speaker because the House was immuned from the control of the Executive.
“Fayose must produce the three unidentified persons who impersonated the lawmakers.
“The prevention of cameras to cover the proceeding was illegal because it is in the rules of the House that every procedure must be recorded.
“The latest situation in Ekiti portends retrogression for our dear state, lack of peace and there can be no development and since this man became governor, it has been needless controversies and crisis.