SIX DAYS IN OFFICE.
Aribisogan sacked from office for blocking passage of Supplementary
Appropriation Bill.
Six other lawmakers suspended for compromising Assembly security.
Barely six days in office, the Speaker of Ekiti State House of
Assembly, Rt. Hon. Gboyega Aribisogan, was on Monday impeached from
office and suspended indefinitely by seventeen (17) lawmakers for
blocking the passage of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Bill.
Aribisogan was immediately replaced by the Assembly Chief Whip, Rt.
Hon. Olubunmi Adelugba from Emure Constituency, who was unanimously
elected new Speaker by all the 17 lawmakers present at a plenary
presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon. Hakeem Jamiu.
The oath of office and the oath of allegiance was subsequently
administered on Mrs. Adelugba, who became the first female Speaker in
the history of the Assembly since return to democracy in 1999.
The new Speaker thanked her colleagues for finding her worthy to be
elected as Speaker promising not to take the trust and confidence
reposed in her for granted. She later adjourned sittings of House sine
die (indefinitely).
Six other lawmakers in the Assembly were also slammed with suspension
for compromising the process of the election that produced Aribisogan
as Speaker on November 15, among other alleged unpatriotic and non
parliamentary conduct capable of threatening the peace of the state.
Aribisogan and the six erring lawmakers were also barred from the
vicinity of the House of Assembly Complex within the radius of 1.5km
for their acts which, according to their colleagues, offend the
provisions of the House Standing Rules and the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The six lawmakers suspended and barred alongside the impeached Speaker
are Hon. Tajudeen Akingbolu (Ekiti West 1), Hon. Tope Ogunleye
(Ilejemeje), Hon. Ajibade Adeyemi (Moba 1), Hon. Adekemi Balogun (Ado
1), Hon. Yemi Ayokunle (Ekiti Southwest 1) and Hon. Adegoke Olajide
(Efon).
The legislative penalties meted out to Aribisogan and six others
followed the consideration and adoption of the report of a six-member
Adhoc Investigative Committee constituted to look into the
circumstances surrounding the non-passage of the 2022 Appropriation
Bill which they said could cripple governance in the state.
Jamiu who presided over the plenary until the election of Mrs.
Adelugba, had earlier dissolved all existing principal positions and
appointed Hon. Johnson Oyekola Bode-Adeoye as the new Leader of
Government Business while he also resuscitated the already dissolved
Committee on Appropriation.
Speaking at the plenary on the terms of the punishment on Aribisogan
and six others, Deputy Speaker Jamiu explained that the impeached
Speaker Aribisogan and six others were suspended without pay with
immediate effect and they are barred from 1.5km radius of the premises
of the House.
Jamiu also added that the axed lawmakers are to hand over properties
of government in their possession to the Clerk of the House and anyone
of them wishing to be reabsorbed must write a letter of apology to the
leadership of the House
Apart from the allegations contained in the report of the adhoc
investigative committee, Jamiu also frowned at the impeached Speaker
for denigrating the image of the House by taking the internal affairs
of the state legislature to the conventional media and social media an
act he described as unacceptable.
The Chairman of the Investigative Committee, Hon. Bode-Adeoye, had
earlier laid the report of the findings of the panel before the
lawmakers which was unanimously adopted before the impeachment process
against Aribisogan and the suspension of six others commenced.
The Committee found Aribisogan and the six other legislators culpable
as a result of their unpatriotic acts that stalled the passage of the
2022 Supplementary Appropriation Bill recommending the impeachment and
indefinite suspension of the ex-Speaker from office with immediate
effect.
The Committee also recommended the indefinite suspension of the six
legislators for various non parliamentary acts which they allegedly
carried out in cahoots with the deposed Speaker.
The alleged offences include causing disaffection, tension and
apprehension among Assembly members whose votes were not allowed to
count at the November 15 election of new Speaker to replace the late
former Speaker, Rt. Hon. Funminiyi Afuye.
The Committee also found them guilty of compromising the security of
the House of Assembly members thereby putting the lives of innocent
staff members as a whole in danger by importing hoodlums armed with
dangerous weapons into the gallery and chambers of the complex.
The former Speaker and his six colleagues were also declared complicit
by the Committee for their alleged roles on desecrating the premises
and the hallowed chambers when in the wee hours of the morning of
Monday, November 14, precisely at 2.00am by bringing people suspected
to be juju men for ritual purposes.
The Committee, in the course of its investigation, invited leadership
of the House to shed light on their roles for the non-passage of 2022
Supplementary Appropriation Bill and other unpatriotic activities.
Mrs. Adelugba who was the Chairman of Finance and Appropriation
Committee, was summoned before the Committee to explain the role(s)
played by her or her Committee on why the Supplementary Appropriation
Bill had not been passed.
The new Speaker who appeared before the Investigative Committee to
clear herself of any wrongdoing in the stalling of the Supplementary
Appropriation Bill.
Other Honourable Members that had useful information were allowed to
make representation/presentation while.others neither appeared nor
forwarded any document to the Committee in the course of
investigation.
The new Speaker, Mrs. Adelugba, after adjourning plenary led her
colleagues to the State Secretariat of the All Progressives Congress
(APC) to officially inform party leaders of the change of leadership
in the Assembly.