As at the time of filing this report, the two lawmakers were still laying claim to the speakership of the assembly.
While the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers loyal to Governor Ayodele Fayose on Thursday impeached the speaker, Dr. Adewale Omirin, and elected Hon Dele Olugbemi as replacement, Omirin is insisting that he remains the Speaker on the ground that the minority cannot remove him from office.
Although the proceeding where the pro-Fayose lawmakers impeached the Omirin was shrouded in mystery especially as it had to do with the identity of the lawmakers at the plenary, Olugbemi has since Thursday assumed duties as the third citizen of the state in the Office of the Speaker.
This is as Omirin, who alongside the other 18 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers at present in exile in Lagos, has threatened to resume tomorrow at the office to continue with his legislative duties as the Speaker.
Although Omirin who had alleged threat to his life and those of the other 18 APC lawmakers held his resumption tactics and way to fight back close to his chest, it is apparent there will be tension in the Assembly tomorrow with the anticipated resumption of two warring captains in the same ship.
While the pro-Fayose lawmakers said 10 members sat at the plenary last Monday to ratify the Commissionersnominees of Governor Ayodele Fayose and the caretaker committee members for the 16 local government areas and sat on Thursday to effect the Omirin’s impeachment, the APC caucus in the House said only seven PDP lawmakers, who did not form a quorum, sat on the two occasions.
According to the Leader of Government Business in the House, Hon. Samuel Ajibola, 10 members comprising the seven PDP lawmakers and three APC legislators sat on the two occasions, adding that there was the need to protect them through not mentioning their names.
Listing the “many sins of Omirin,” Ajibola said: “Omirin and his deputy have absconded without official notice for more than two weeks now and business of the government and Assembly cannot grind to halt.
“We learnt they are in Lagos and we wonder why he will go and stay in Lagos while governance in Ekiti and the people will be suffering.
“Omirin is guilty of revealing official secret, misappropriating of Assembly funds and signing bank bond with the past executive without the knowledge of other members of the Assembly,” he said.
But Omirin, who accused the PDP lawmakers of bringing impersonators to the plenary, challenged the PDP and Fayose to furnish the public with the identities of the “mystery lawmakers”.
Omirin, who paraded 19 APC lawmakers in Lagos on Thursday, said: “The 19 APC members are intact and we are outside the state because the place is not safe for us. Fayose is fast becoming a maximum ruler and this cannot stand.
“What they did was illegal because they cannot change the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Ordinarily we never had the intention of impeaching the Governor because he has not committed any offence.
“But we have to leave the state when we realised that our lives were no longer safe. As I speak to you, my drivers and other aides have been removed and wild demonstration sponsored by Fayose is ongoing in Ado Ekiti now. I want to emphasize that I remain the Speaker of the Assembly”, the APC chieftain said.
Omirin, who described his impeachment as illegality, said: “We are going to fight with law. We are not running from Ekiti. We are going back to Ekiti. What we are doing here in Lagos is to let the whole world know what is happening in Ekiti State”.
But the state government, which has since congratulated Olugbemi as the new speaker, on Friday, debunked Omirin’s claim that 19 APC lawmakers were on his side and accused him of going about with unknown people and parading them as members of the House of Assembly.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, accused Omirin of “drawing APC members from Osun and Lagos states to deceive people that they are members of Ekiti House of Assembly. They were elected into office by the people of Ekiti State and only the people of the state know who their legislators are.
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