There is no love lost between members of the All Progressives Congress, APC dominated lawmakers in the Ekiti State House of Assembly and the new state government of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, since October 21, when the new governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose came on board.
Naturally, one is expected the kind of cat and mouse relationship existing between the two opposing parties, who had earlier engaged each other in the turbulent June 21 governorship election in the state.
It is interesting to note that before the inauguration of Governor Fayose, of the 26-member state assembly, the PDP had only one member, while the remaining 25 were members of the APC.
But when Fayose came on board, six aggrieved APC members dumped their party for the PDP, therefore, leaving APC with 19 lawmakers and seven PDP lawmakers in the state assembly.
In the wake of Fayose’s inauguration, rumour had it that the APC under the regime of Dr. Kayode Fayemi allegedly worked in concert with the state judiciary to stop Fayose from being inaugurated through the court based on the eligibility case filed against him by the Ekiti-based socio-political organization, the E 11.
The calculation, according to those in the PDP was that after the removal of Fayose and the expiration of the 4-year term of Fayemi, the allegedly impeached Speaker of the state assembly, Hon. Adewale Omirin would emerge as the Acting Governor of the state, for the next 90 days according to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Following this scenario, Omirin had been under serious suspicion by the members of the PDP in the state assembly.
This frosty relationship between the executive arm of government and the APC dominated House, played out glaringly on June 11, 2014, when the governor wrote to the House to thrash out three issues.
Three contending issues
One, the screening and confirmation of the list of the three commissioner nominees sent to the House by Fayose. Two, power to constitute caretaker committees in all the 16 local government areas of the state and the approval of the House to source for the sum of N2 billion loan from the N220 billion Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN business loan.
The House at its plenary session approved the raising of the N2 billion CBN loan and tactically turned down two other requests, given reasons that the commissioner nominees were turned down for confirmation, because their curriculum vitae were not attached with the letter of request.
On the composition of the caretaker committees, the House refused to deliberate on the issue on the premise that the matter was pending in the court
However, Vanguard gathered that the lawmakers were only looking for lame excuses to advance their course, as they were alleged to have made certain demands, some of which were considered ridiculous and undesirable by the new governor.
The 19 Ekiti APC Lawmakers
Parts of the demands, according to Mr Owoseni Ajayi, a lawyer, the state’s new Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice was the issue of not reopening some of the murder cases hanging on the neck of some of the APC leaders in the state.
As the ongoing melee continued, there was another bombshell on Monday, November 17, when the 7 PDP lawmakers in the assembly and three unidentified people sat at the assembly amid water-tight security, to ratify the list of the three commissioner nominees earlier sent to the House.
The lawmakers who appointed Speaker Pro tempore in person of Hon. Dele Olugbemi equally empowered the governor to appoint 12 Special Advisers and go ahead to constitute caretaker committees to man the affairs of the 16 local government councils in the state.
This happened with no fewer than 100 anti-riot policemen and a sizeable number of officials of Department of State Security (DSS) to provide security for the PDP lawmakers. The lawmakers were later piloted out of the assembly premises with a government coastal bus.
However, this action has since stirred the hornet’s nest in the state, as there have been accusations and counter-accusations between the APC and the PDP.
In a swift statement by the state APC image maker, Taiwo Olatubosun, he insisted that only 7 PDP lawmakers were in the House, and thus the actions were illegal since a two-third quorum was not reached.
Olatubosun, however challenged the governor to mention the names of all the 10 law makers involved in the ratification and the constituencies they are representing.
This is even as the Speaker, Hon. Omirin alleged through his spokesperson that the account of the running grant of the House has been frozen by the governor; his office sealed up and that all the official vehicles attached to the speaker including his aides have been withdrawn.
Responding, the chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Idowu Adelusi described all the allegations as untrue, pointing that “the governor was magnanimous in approving 100 per cent of the running grants of the lawmakers. The running grants of all the ministries, agencies and parastatals have been cut because of the acute shortage of state resource.
Similarly, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Information and Civic Orientation, Mr. Lanre Ogunsuyi, said “it was the government of Fayemi that had a law that only the state governor could appoint aides to the lawmakers and council chairmen. The governor has merely revalidated the laws made by Fayemi. So, if the speaker still wants some of his aides working with him, he needs to present their names to Mr Governor to consider the request.”
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