The Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dele Olugbemi, has said there is no illegality in last week’s removal of Dr Adewale Omirin as the Speaker of the Assembly.
Olugbemi, who stated this in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday through his media aide, Mr Femi Iroko, also said that the claim by the All Progressives Congress members of the Assembly that Governor Ayo Fayose wanted to turn them to house boys was frivolous.
Olugbemi was reacting to the visit of APC lawmakers to the Speaker of Osun State House of Assembly, Najeem Salam, where they described Omirin’s removal as illegal among other issues.
“It is baffling that honourable members can start going about peddling falsehood. For the purpose of setting the records straight, the Ekiti State House of Assembly constitutionally and legally sat last Thursday and removed Omirin and elected a new set of leaders.
“Our APC colleagues also lied by saying that Governor Ayo Fayose is behaving like an authoritarian in his dealings with them. The governor held a series of meetings with members of the EKHA and I was privy to those meetings.
“The governor nearly prostrated for us in some of the meetings, begging us on the need to put Ekiti State first in our considerations. Surprisingly, anytime we agreed to work for the growth of the state, our APC colleagues would change their minds when they get out of the venue and are teleguided by their leaders in Lagos and Abuja.
“To the APC lawmakers, Ekiti is not their first priority, but their own first is APC. They are the ones who do not want the progress of the state. They are hell bent on seeking vengeance for the defeat of their party in the June 21 governorship poll.
“For us in the PDP, it is Ekiti first, but for them in the APC, it is APC first. We cannot allow anybody or group to hold the state down and be a stumbling block to the progress of our dear state,” he said.
Olugbemi advised the APC lawmakers to come back to Ekiti State and perform the constitutional roles they were elected for.
He advised Omirin to note that he would be coming back to be a member of the Assembly, not the speaker, as the suit Omirin filed about his removal has not been determined.
