•APC: Count us out of assembly crisis
Two factions are laying claim to the Speaker’s seat of Ondo State, further fuelling the crisis rocking the House of Assembly.
A faction of the lawmakers last Friday impeached Hon. Jumoke Akindele from Okitipupa State Constituency II over alleged fraud of N15million.
They elected the lawmaker representing Ilaje constituency I, Hon. Malachi Coker as the acting speaker.
The paymaster of the Assembly, alleged to be acting under the instruction of Akindele, was said to have been caught with a “Gha?na Must Go” bag loaded with N15million at the Assembly premises.
The paymaster’s pictures with the “Ghana Must Go” bag? circulated widely on social media.
The Assembly is dominated by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 21?members while the All Progressives Congress (APC) has five.
Deputy Speaker Fatai Olu and Majority leader Ifedayo Akinsoyinu were also sacked by the aggrieved lawmakers.
In their stead, they elected Ayodele Arowele from Owo state constituency I as Deputy Speaker and Olumide George from Akure north as majority leader.
But the embattled Akindele denied all the allegations and insisted she remains the speaker.
Akindele is very loyal to Governor Olusegun Mimiko.
At a media session by Coker’s faction in Akure, the state capital, the lawmakers, who claimed 20 of them carried out the impeachment process, said there was no going back on their decision.
The faction sometimes last year sacked the embattled speaker but reversed their decision 24 hours after Mimiko and some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders intervened.
It said it had set up a committee headed by Hon. Bamidele Oleyelogun, who is the parliamentary secretary of the Assembly, to investigate the alleged fraud level against Akindele.
Spokesperson of the Coker’s faction Ogundeji Iroju said the impeachment was sequel to discovery of N15million with the Pay Master of the Assembly.
He said an emergency plenary session was convened after the Pay Master was arrested leading to the impeachment of Akindele and swearing in of Coker by Clerk of Assembly, Bode Adeyelu.
Iroju asked the governor and security agencies to recognise the new leadership and withdraw recognition accorded to erstwhile leaders of the Assembly.
But Hon. Siji Akindiose dismissed the impeachment as an exercise in futility, pointing out the other faction needed not less than 18 to effect any lawful change in the leadership.
Akindiose, who accused the incoming All Progressives Congress (APC) of sponsoring the crisis, said some members allowed themselves to be used to destabilise the peace in the Assembly.
According to him: “To orchestrate such illegality, they blatantly took recourse to the travesty to the known rules and convention of the House.
“Expecting it to stand shows clearly that some people are either power drunk or they are incapable of understanding or appreciating the fine ethos of the rules of the House and the rule of law.
“To even attempt to enforce their ill-advised will on the majority of the House in such a callous manner is a pointer to the kind of leadership style they plan to provide.
“In the course of his duty, a law abiding senior public officer was manhandled, tortured and subjected to a callous dehumanising treatment.
Akindiose added the fund being paraded by the aggrieved lawmakers as proceed of fraud was meant for projects and properly appropriated for and approved by the leadership of the House.
In a swift reaction, the APC said it had no hand in the crisis.
Publicity Secretary of Ondo APC, Abayomi Adesanya, said the development at the crisis in the Assembly was “an attestation of looting spree currently going on in the state.”
Adesanya wondered: “Is it the APC that mandated the suspended speaker to ferry N15m out of the Assembly coffers? Is it the APC that asked the speaker to evade arrest by the EFCC officials when they stormed the state and assembly complex late last year?”
He maintained Governor Olusegun Mimiko deserved impeachment in a normal clime, going by various atrocities he had committed in the few weeks leading to his handover.
The APC said: “You can imagine Mimiko has no budget for 2017 yet he is spending money generously, commissioning phoney projects and awarding contracts massively with payment of mobilisation fee to contractors.”
It accused the outgoing government of looting in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), adding officials have many questions to answer after their exit on February 23.