No division in Assembly, Aiyedatiwa’s impeachment process on course —Speaker

The Speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly, Olamide Oladiji, yesterday, dispelled the rumour of division among lawmakers in the state over the impeachment proceedings against the Deputy Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa.

Noting that the state lawmakers have been meeting at the legislative quarters owing to the ongoing strike embarked by the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), Oladiji described the alleged division as false.

He stated this while fielding questions from newsmen in Akure over the decision of 11 members of the assembly to distance themselves from the letter addressed to the Chief Judge, Justice Olusegun Odusola, requesting him to constitute a seven-man probe panel over the allegations levelled against Aiyedatiwa.

The speaker, who explained that all members of the assembly are working together and performing their oversight functions, stressed that the assembly is following due process on the impeachment of the deputy governor.

He stressed that the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), during a reconciliation meeting in Abuja, instructed them to settle the issue politically, but with the condition that all matters in court concerning the impeachment should be withdrawn.

He said: “At times, when there’s a political tussle like this, there can be insinuations and 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.”

Meanwhile, the speaker dismissed the allegation that the state has shut down and nothing is functioning as a result of the absence of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu from the state.

“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.”

Reacting to the letter submitted to the assembly by the Peoples Democratic Party’s youths demanding the formation of a panel to investigate the medical condition of Akeredolu, the speaker described the authors of the letter as faceless.