The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ekiti Assembly crisis

  • Tension as thugs invade Ekiti Assembly vicinity

    There is tension in some parts of Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, Monday morning following reports of plan by the All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers to hold a sitting inside the House of Assembly complex.

    At the time of filing this report at about 11.15am, suspected thugs have been mobilized to the vicinity of the Assembly complex where they are “waiting” for the lawmakers.

    A visit by our reporter to some parts of the city including the House of Assembly area and adjoining streets showed the thugs milling around, standing in groups in some locations.

    Although the thugs were not allowed near the House of Assembly complex by armed policemen keeping vigil in the area, the hoodlums were observing events from safe distance.

    Some of the places where the thugs can be found include an uncompleted petrol station at Awedele Road junction, an uncompleted block of the State Secretariat complex at the back of the Assembly complex, under a tree beside Ekiti Parapo Square and the Nigeria Union of Journalists Secretariat near NTA Ado Ekiti.

    Riot policemen deployed to the area were conducting stop-and-and-search operation and barricaded some portions of NTA Road, State Secretariat Road and the road leading to the Judges’ Quarters.

    Vehicles belonging to drivers’ unions were parked in the vicinity of the Government House with the unions’ members standing by.

    Bonfires were lit in places like Irona/Isato junction, Ijigbo Roundabout and Omisanjana junction.

    Commercial and social activities were going on at press time.

  • Fayose a maximum ruler, dictator – Omirin

    Fayose a maximum ruler, dictator – Omirin

    The Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin, on Wednesday opened up on the relationship between the lawmakers and Governor Ayo Fayose saying “the state is being ruled by a maximum ruler and a dictator who runs his administration on lies and falsehood.”

    Omirin who also cleared the air on the statement he was reported to have made earlier on Tuesday to the effect that no assassination attempt was made on his life.

    He also condemned a story aired by the radio and television channels of the Broadcasting Service of Ekiti State (BSES) in which the stations claimed that he (Omirin) was misled in the recent actions taken by the All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers.

    Addressing a news conference in his Aisegba-Ekiti country home in Gbonyin local government area of the state, Omirin revealed that what was in the undertaking he signed at the state police command was that he did not see suspected assassins that came to his Ado-Ekiti residence Monday night but concerned residents called to inform him of the presence of strange men outside his home.

    The speaker explained that he never said his life was threatened by the coming of the unknown persons, saying what he said at the police headquarters tallied with the content of the statement issued by his media aide, Wole Olujobi.

    He said Fayose has practically made it impossible for the APC lawmakers to perform their legislative functions by writing to the police to arrest them immediately on arrival in the state and at the same time accusing them of abandoning their duty post.

    He revealed that the governor has stopped the salaries of all the APC lawmakers “even when he lacks the constitutional powers to do so” noting that Fayose is emulating the impunity and illegality being carried out at the federal level by his party.

    Speaking on why they held a sitting at a secret location, Omirin who said the Standing Order and the Constitution empower them to do so when their lives are in danger, adding that “abnormal situation calls for abnormal solutions.”

    Omirin went on: “Few days after our last sitting, the governor wrote to the Commissioner of Police that we should be arrested and I told him that all of us are ready for arrest and there is no law stopping us from sitting anywhere if our lives are under threat.

    “The governor has been calling for my head since then and I don’t think that the governor has a genuine love for Ekiti State because each time we are coming to the state, he would accuse us of bringing thugs to the state which is not true.”

  • Police mediate in Ekiti Assembly crisis

    … Omirin dispels rumoured assassination attempt

    Hopes of a truce among the warring factions in the Ekiti State House of Assembly brightened on Tuesday with the intervention of the state police command which has commenced mediation process.

    The crisis in the Assembly was triggered by a sitting held by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers who impeached Dr. Adewale Omirin as speaker of the House and elected a member representing Ikole 2 Constituency, Dele Olugbemi as speaker on November 20 last year.

    The seven PDP Assembly members had earlier screened and ratified the appointment of three commissioner nominees picked by Governor Ayo Fayose.

    They also empowered the governor to constitute caretaker committees for the 16 local government councils and appointed 12 special advisers.

    The APC lawmakers held a plenary at a secret location on December 18 where they suspended the seven PDP lawmakers and reversed all the actions taken in their absence.
    The state’s Commissioner of Police, Taiwo Lakanu, has initiated a process to bring the two factions together and restore peace to the beleaguered Assembly.

    Omirin visited the state police command headquarters where he held a meeting with Lakanu and declared the readiness of the APC caucus to resume legislative duties at the Assembly complex.

    The speaker also gave a commitment that the 19 APC lawmakers would not foment trouble or make inflammatory statements.

    In a chat with reporters shortly after he emerged from the police commissioner’s office, Omirin also dispelled rumour of an assassination attempt on him which had earlier been circulated on the social media.

    Omirin described the rumour as “baseless and unfounded.”

     

  • We won’t interfere in Ekiti Assembly crisis – Police

    Following alleged subterranean moves to arrest the 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) members of Ekiti State House of Assembly for holding a plenary sitting last Thursday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, the police has promised to maintain neutrality in the legislative crisis.

    The APC legislators on Sunday claimed that Governor Ayodele Fayose has directed the Ministry of Justice to forward a memo to the state’s Commissioner of Police to arrest the lawmakers for conducting a sitting at an unknown location in the state capital.

    The lawmakers insisted that they cannot be arrested for performing their constitutional duties on the premise that Section 101 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) empowers them to sit in another location in the state capital if their security cannot be guaranteed in the House of Assembly complex.

    But the state’s police command on Monday said it won’t get involved in the legislative crisis, maintaining that “the issue is a political matter that has to be settled politically.”

    Speaking with reporters in a telephone chat, the state’s police command spokesman, Victor Babayemi, maintained that the Force is not a political organization but a security agency empowered to maintain law and order and prevent security breach.

    Babayemi clarified that the command had not received instruction from any quarter to arrest the APC legislators led by Speaker Adewale Omirin, urging politicians not to drag the police into internal affairs of the state’s parliament.