Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Right Honourable (Pastor) Kola Oluwawole, has described a Federal High Court ruling ordering him to appear before it on November 24 as an embarrassment to him.
DAILY POST had reported that Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court sitting in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on Thursday, ordered Pastor Oluwawole to appear before it “over his refusal to swear in Toyin Obayemi as a lawmaker in the state.”
But the Speaker, in a statement by his Special Assistant (Media), Stephen Gbadamosi, on Friday, declared that all he had done, as the head of the state House of Assembly, over the matter, remained within the ambit of the law; hence, the report came to him as an embarrassment, especially as he was yet to receive a copy of any such order.
“That report came as an embarrassment to me. All we have done, as a House of Assembly, over the matter remains within the ambit of the law. Besides, as we speak, I have not received a copy of any court order to that effect.
“At the height of the matter, we consulted with the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, who is the chief law officer in the state. He categorically made me to understand that the matter is a subject before the Court of Appeal; and that until that appeal is dispensed with, it would be sub judicial for me to take any action on it.
“Hence, the Attorney-General had advised us to leave the matter for the court process to run its full and normal course. In the House of Assembly, we are lawmakers; we don’t break the law. We are waiting for the appeal to be decided and there is no court order sent to me over any matter whatsoever.
“That is why we have not been able to act on Mr Obayemi’s matter. So, why this embarrassing report,” he queried.
Oluwawole said further, “inasmuch as the courts are the last hope of all citizens, it would be wrong, and even dangerous for our democracy, for any individual or institution to preempt the outcome of their decisions.”
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