Ekiti: 35 States’ Speakers Reject Olugbemi’s Emergence

Speakers of 35 states’ houses of assembly yesterday in Abuja said they would not recognise Hon. Dele Olugbemi as the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly.

They spoke under the auspices of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures (CSSL), a forum which unites all the speakers of the 36 states of the federation under an umbrella.

A group of seven Ekiti State lawmakers had on Thursday impeached Dr. Adewale Omirin as their Speaker and appointed Mr. Dele Olugbemi, who recently defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as his replacement.

In his justification of the “impeachment”, the Ekiti Assembly’s Minority Leader, Hon. Samuel Ajibola, had alleged Omirin and his deputy’s “absence without official notice,” and said, “The business of the House cannot grind to a halt as government is a continuum.”

The CSSL’s chairman and also Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Hon. Sam Ikon, stated the body’s position in Abuja while addressing journalists at an interactive session of Civil Society Organisations and Speakers of State Houses of Assembly on ‘Constitution Amendment Bills Awaiting passage’ organised by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC).

Ikon said the group still recognised Omirin as the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly because the mode of his impeachment was illegal and unconstitutional.

According to Ikon, there was nowhere in the world where a lesser number could outweigh a higher number for the purpose of removing a speaker.

The conference, he said, was neither partial nor sentimental, adding that Olugbemi would have been recognised if the impeachment of Omirin had followed due process.

Also speaking at the event, the embattled speaker, Omirin, alleged that the governor of the state, Ayodele Fayose, has deep hatred for him and other members of the House of Assembly who are from the APC.