Ondo speaker under fire for denying snake invasion of assembly complex

Akeredolu promises to create LCDAs
Ondo State House of Assembly speaker, Bamidele Oloyelogun, is under fire for denying the snake invasion story and subsequent caving in of the complex’s ceiling during plenary.

A snake reportedly invaded the Yoruba plenary last week, while the ceiling fell barely 24 hours after, causing the house to adjourn sitting indefinitely.

However, the speaker, who blatantly refused to comment on the incident, distanced himself from the interview granted to journalists by his colleagues, accusing the media of misrepresenting facts.

Oloyelogun, who is under fire to resign, had denied the report before Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, who visited the assembly complex and accused the lawmakers of plotting to blackmail his administration.

The House Committee Chairman on Information, Olugbenga Omole, had confirmed the two incidents to journalists on Thursday.

Reacting to the speaker’s denial, All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Mr. Rotimi Ogunleye, said, “Immediately I listened to the speaker of the House of Assembly in the news bulletin of Channels Television, I spotted the stupidity in their story. It was ill-packaged.

Lawyer and public affairs advocate, Femi Emodamori, flayed the speaker for blaming the incident on the media and called for his impeachment.

Meanwhile, Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has assured that creation of Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the state will take off soon.

This is contrary to insinuations that the plan had hit the rocks.

Local government autonomy, which had been contentious for some time, may soon be realised, as the Senate has expressed support for Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU)’s directive for governors to steer clear of councils’ funds.

Akeredolu, while receiving the LCDA report from the committee at the weekend, said the issue of LCDAs was dear to the people of the state and, therefore, promised to consider it an important matter.

He, however, said that his government would not create more LCDAs than necessary.

“We will look into this and make sure that in few months, we create the LCDAs. It’s usual we still subject it to exco scrutiny,” he said.

Submitting the report, chairman of the committee, Lanke Odogiyan, said his team received 94 memoranda requesting 105 LCDAs. He added that the committee sieved through the huge documents to remove the chaff from the grain.