Security has been beefed up at the Ondo State House of Assembly complex following a failed attempt by a faction of members of the Assembly to hold a session today.
This came following the intervention of the state government to prevent breakdown of law and order in the House of Assembly which has been rocked with leadership crisis for about two months.
It was gathered that the group loyal to factional Speaker, Hon. Malachi Coker, had planned to sit this morning before meeting resistance from the police, which sealed the Chambers last month.
A source told DAILY POST that the other group of 13 lawmakers loyal to Speaker Jumoke Akindele had gathered to storm the Assembly to prevent the other group from sitting before the whole thing was called off by the police.
A source within the government revealed that Governor Rotimi Akeredolu had insisted that no sitting should hold in the Assembly until the two warring groups reconcile.
The governor had held meetings with the groups, individually and collectively, appealing to them to end the feud but reconciliation seems difficult to come by.
The governor had held a meeting with members of the two groups last week, during which, there were various suggestions on how to deal with the issue at hand.
However, some other political interests outside the Assembly are said to be making reconciliation difficult, with the governor apparently uncertain on the best approach to ending the crisis due to pressures.
One of those interests, it was gathered, was the presence of a former deputy governor of the State, Alhaji Ali Olanusi, at the reconciliation meeting the governor held with the lawmakers last week.
Olanusi, it was learnt, was interested in the current events in the Assembly because of his impeachment in 2015 by the 7th Assembly. He is currently challenging the impeachment in court.
Others said Olanusi wants the House of Assembly to review and possibly reverse his impeachment in case the court case fails so he can be eligible to collect his entitlements as former deputy governor of the State.
Meanwhile, the reconciliation meeting held with the governor was said to have resolved to set up a committee of ten members (five from each group) to look at the various suggestions made and come out with a resolution.
The committee, however, has been unable to meet since then.
One of the most popular suggestions made at the meeting with the governor was for both Akindele and Coker to step aside for the lawmakers to sit with the Clerk of the Assembly wh will preside till the House elects new principal officers.
With the governor travelling to Abuja yesterday, his deputy, Hon. Agboola Ajayi, was said to have given the Malachi Coker group the surreptitious backing to sit in the Assembly today so as to legitimise the group under the current administration.
Some of the senior staff of the Assembly had last night been notified of the planned sitting for this morning before it was stopped by the police.
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