•Aribisogan Sacked For Blocking Supplementary Appropriation Bill Passage
…6 Other Lawmakers Suspended For Compromising Assembly Security
The Ekiti State House of Assembly got its first female Speaker on Monday, since the advent of the current democratic dispensation.
This follows the impeachment of the Speaker, Rt Hon. Gboyega Abisogan, who may go into the history books and shortest serving Speaker, barely after six days in office.
Abisogan was also handed an indefinite suspension from the House.
Rt. Hon. Aribisogan, was on Monday impeached from office and suspended indefinitely by 17 lawmakers for blocking the passage of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Bill.
Following the impeachment, Aribisogan was immediately replaced with the Assembly Chief Whip, Rt. Hon. Olubunmi Adelugba, from Emure state 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 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.
Adelugba later adjourned sittings of House sine die (indefinitely).
The Ekiti Assembly also suspended six other lawmakers for compromising the process of the election that produced Aribisogan as Speaker on November 15, among other alleged unpatriotic and unparliamentary conducts, 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 1.5 kilometres’ radius for their acts, which the 17 lawmakers said offending 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 state constituency 1; Hon. Tope Ogunleye, Ilejemeje state constituency; Hon. Ajibade Adeyemi, Moba state constituency 1; Hon. Adekemi Balogun, Ado State constituency 1; Hon. Yemi Ayokunle, Ekiti South-West State constituency 1; and Hon. Adegoke Olajide, Efon State constituency.
The legislative penalties meted out to Aribisogan and the six other lawmakers came after the consideration and adoption of the report of a six-member Adhoc Investigative Committee, AIC, set up by the House to look into the circumstances surrounding the non-passage of the 2022 Supplementary 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 the six others, Deputy Speaker Jamiu explained that the impeached Speaker Aribisogan and the six others were suspended without pay with immediate effect; and they are barred from 1.5 kilometre radius of the premises of the House.
Jamiu revealed 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.
Jamiu also frowned at Aribisogan’s denigration of the image of the House by taking the internal affairs of the state legislature to the conventional media and the social media, an act he described as unacceptable, apart from the allegations contained in the report of the adhoc investigative committee.
The Chairman of the Adhoc 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.
Aribisogan and the six suspended lawmakers were found culpable as a result of their unpatriotic acts that stalled the passage of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Bill and recommended the impeachment and indefinite suspension of the former Speaker from office with immediate effect.
The Committee also recommended the indefinite suspension of the six legislators for various unparliamentary acts, which they allegedly carried out in cahoots with the deposed Speaker.
The alleged offences include: causing disaffection, tension and apprehension among members of the Assembly, whose voted were not allowed to count at the November 15 election of new Speaker to replace the late former Speaker, Rt. Hon. Funminiyi Afuye.
They were also found guilty of compromising the security of the House of Assembly members thereby putting the lives of innocent staff, and members as a whole in danger by importing hoodlums armed with dangerous weapons into the gallery and chambers of the complex.
The committee also declared the former Speaker and his six complicit for their alleged roles on desecrating the premises and the hallowed chambers of the House, 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 in 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 Adhoc Investigative Committee to clear herself of any wrongdoing in the stalling of the passage of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Bill.
Other embers of the House who had useful information on the matter were aslo 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.
