As reaction continues to trail the development in Ekiti state where 7 Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, lawmakers allegedly impeached the Ekiti state Assembly Speaker, Dr. Adewale Omirin, the Special Assistant to Governor Ayodele Fayose on Public Communications and New Media, Mr. Lere Olayinka has reacted to the development.
In a telephone interview with DAILY POST, Olayinka affirmed that the issue was clearly an Assembly matter and has nothing to do with the Executive, asserting that Omirin’s impeachment was long overdue even before the inauguration of his boss as the state governor.
Excerpts:
We just got news that the Speaker of the House of Assembly was eventually impeached today, can you confirm that?
So I also heard, and it is true that Honourable Dele Olugbemi, one of the APC members who decamped to the PDP was sworn-in as the Speaker minutes ago.
We also learnt that about seven lawmakers carried out the impeachment, is that right?
As I speak, I am in Lagos. I am not in Ekiti, so the only story I can confirm to you is that a new Speaker was sworn-in As well as a new Deputy speaker , but as for the number of people who sat, I cannot confirm.
Has the new development not confirmed the APC’s position that your party is working on sacking principal officers of the House?
There are 26 members in the House of Assembly. Each of the members is a potential ‘’Speaker’’. Being a Speaker is a privilege and not a right because all of them were elected first as House of Assembly members before one of them became Speaker. So whoever is the Speaker is the business of the House of Assembly. It is their role and their function. It’s really not about anybody outside the House.
So many people have seen this fallout as a consequence of the cat and mouse relationship between the governor and the Speaker since he was sworn-in?
Like I have been saying, the governor is not a member of the House of Assembly; the House has been operating before he became governor. Do not also forget that even before Fayose became governor, there have been several attempts to remove Omirin as the Speaker even by the APC members, because they saw him as someone who was not capable enough to get entitlement from the governor then. So it was not Fayose that was trying to remove him then when he was not the governor.
With this new development, are we going to now see a more peaceful governance in Ekiti state?
There is nothing ‘unpeaceful’ about governance in Ekiti state. The government is going on with what they have to do; we are executing different projects. If the legislative arm of government is doing something, it does not affect the executive arm.
The Principle of separation of power says that the three arms of government, though separated, still work together, so if one is affected don’t you think it affects the others and also don’t you think there is need for the governor to form a government of reconciliation?
The first thing Fayose did when he became governor was to extend a hand of fellowship to the APC lawmakers. Don’t forget that Omirin who was the Speaker did not attend Fayose’s inauguration as the governor. That program was a state function. It wasn’t PDP or APC and he had no reason not to have attended. Hence, not to have attended sent a bad message and two days after Fayose was sworn-in, the next thing Omirin did was to declare one month recess for the House of Assembly. That means he wanted the House of Assembly to be under lock down for one month because he knew that the new Governor would need to work with the House of Assembly.
Before the Speaker was eventually impeached, there was information that all his personal aides were sacked by the governor and his office sealed and possibly the vehicles attached to his office demobilised. Are these all not ingredients of personal bias in the fight?
The first question you must ask is who was the person that appointed the aides of the Speaker? The aides of the Speaker were appointed by the governor and he who appoints can sack, and let me also say that the law allows the governor to appoint aides of the Speaker and also of local government chairmen passed by the House of Assembly. Fayemi sent the bill to them then and they approved it. They gave the governor power to appoint aides. So when you have power to appoint you also have power to sack.
Don’t you think that such negates the principle of separation of power?
If you ask me, I think it negates the principle of separation of power, but I think you should ask Fayemi that question, because he sent the bill to the House of Assembly and you should also ask Omirin and his colleagues who passed the bill into law. The law was not made by Ayo Fayose, Fayemi did it. When we were not in power, we complained about it and good enough, one of them, Honourable Erinle, an APC lawmaker opposed the law based on what happens when there is change of power in one or two local governments. So they passed the law; the then governor signed and now the law will remain until removed. Therefore, it is the right of the governor to appoint aides for the Speaker, Deputy, local government chairman and others and he can also sack the same aides.
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