The Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Olamide Oladiji, said this weekend, that the embattled deputy governor of the state, Hon Lucky Aiyedatiwa, was not ready for genuine reconciliation to stop his impeachment.
Recall that the assembly had served the deputy governor impeachment notice, for alleged gross misconduct.
But Aiyedatiwa had approached the court to halt the impeachment process just as the national leadership of the party, set up a reconciliation committee to resolve the crisis.
The national leadership of the party, at a peace meeting with the parties in Abuja, directed them to sheath their sword and allow for an amicable settlement of the crisis.
But speaking in Akure, the state capital, on the outcome of the peace meeting in Abuja, with the leadership of the party, the Speaker, Rt Hon Oladiji, said that the deputy governor was not ready for genuine reconciliation.
Oladiji said that during the reconciliation meeting, the assembly members and the deputy governor were asked to withdraw all cases in court.
According to him”We met the National Chairman, and he specifically asked me how do we commence reconciliation.
“I told him that the reconciliation process has to start from the deputy governor, the deputy governor has to start the reconciliation. He is the one that took us to court, we cannot be reconciling ourselves when we have cases in the court.
“Let him go to the court, withdraw all these cases, then we would know that we are now in for genuine reconciliation.
” But the deputy governor has not done that as he has appealed some of the rulings of the lower court.
“But in the process where those cases have not been withdrawn from the court, the court cases are still on, and we are telling ourselves that we are doing genuine reconciliation. Is that one genuine?.
“As far as the House of Assembly is concerned, we are not doing anything. The cases are in the court and we would follow due process. We believe in the court, as far as we are concerned, the matter is the court.
” appealed some cases again, so we are in court, either favorable or unfavorable, then we will know what to do next. As far as we’re concerned now, we are doing nothing, we are following up the cases in the court.”
On the alleged division amongst the assembly members,the speaker said ” I want to use this opportunity to inform the general public that the House of Assembly is intact. About three days ago, we had our parliamentary meeting here(House 11 legislative quarters, Alagbaka, Akure,) because of the protest of this Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN).
“We had about 23 members in attendance. We did so many things together here, if not because of this strike, which is not peculiar to Ondo State alone, it is nationwide, we would have continued our legislative businesses.
“I have been treating files since morning, and our members have been coming, if you go to the speaker’s lodge now, you would see about 15 members there, we are together.
“At times, when there’s a political tussle like this, there can be insinuations, rumours, but in the House of Assembly, we are together. We told ourselves that it is an institution, and the institution must be protected. So, we are together.
“To the public, most of these bloggers want to feed fat on the issues on ground. They are the one deceiving the public, telling all sort of stories that the House is this, it’s that. As far as I am concerned, we are together.”
Oladiji, also, dismissed the allegation that the state has shut down and nothing is functioning as a result of the absence of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu in the state.
He said staffers of the state government are being paid their salaries and the workers are going about their duties unhindered.
“As far as I am concerned, I will not subscribe to that because, if you are telling the public that the state is stagnant, yesterday people just received their salary. The impress would be coming any moment from now.
“It is not a new thing for head of Administration to man a local government, most especially when the state government is planning to conduct an election. Instead of bringing in another set of people, what they do is that, they instruct the head of Administration to take over the government, pending the time we would conduct our election.
“So, it is not a new thing. the state is not stagnant, if you go to most of our construction sites, the Ministry of Works, they are working. All our commissioners are working, they are distributing Palliatives in the 18 Local Governments, we are doing well.
“I don’t know where they get that from, there can be political tussle somewhere, that does not destroy the operation of governance, that does not hinder governance, people are getting their salary, they are getting their impress and the civil servants are doing their work.
The Speaker denied that the impeachment of the deputy governor was initiated by him and members of the assembly.
” Some people are now tracing the impeachment thing to House of Assembly, Mr. Speaker, honorable.
“It did not originate from the House of Assembly, the letter must come from the executive to the House of Assembly. By the time it comes to the House of Assembly, then we ask ourselves, what does the Constitution say? And that’s what we are doing.
“if we are setting up any panel, it would have to come from the executive. If they can get the 2/3 of the members of the executive, fine, and they would write us.
He said that” By the time they write us, it is then we can now start working on it. Just like the one we did, as far as that of Deputy Governor is concerned, the executive wrote us, and we acted on that letter that they wrote us.
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