The Speaker, Ekiti State House of Assembly,
Adewale Omirin, spoke with some journalists in
Lagos on the crisis in Ekiti, on Thursday. ENIOLA
AKINKUOTU was there
•Six members of the House defected to the
Peoples Democratic Party from the All
Progressives Congress even before Governor
Ayo Fayose’s inauguration and that has given
the PDP more impetus. As the Speaker, are
you not worried that the PDP will exploit the
seeming greed in the legislature and lure
more APC lawmakers?
As you can see, 19 of us are committed to the APC
and I don’t have any doubt in mind that any APC
lawmaker will defect any longer. As a matter of
fact, we have taken them (the defectors) to court
because the law stipulates that there must be a
crisis within the party before defection can occur
but there is no crisis in our party, so there was no
reason for them to leave. And the law says when
you defect, you must vacate your seat. So I don’t
see any of our members joining them. Also, the
House rules state that defection can only be done
on the floor of the House or through a letter
addressed to the Speaker but what they did was
to defect in public during Fayose’s inauguration.
So, at best, they are PDP sympathisers.
•What has been your experience since the
crisis between the governor and the House of
Assembly began?
As of last Friday, electricity supply to my lodge
was cut off and I was subjected to total darkness.
There is a letter from the Governor’s Office
withdrawing all my drivers and aides. The same
treatment was meted out to the deputy speaker
and the majority leader. Fayose has also frozen
the account of the Ekiti State House of Assembly.
We are law-abiding citizens and we will support
only the rule of law. If the governor is willing to
work with us, we will work with him.
•It was alleged that the Assembly wanted to
impeach Fayose.
The impeachment allegation is another decoy for
a governor who does not want to work. He is
already talking of impeachment less than two
weeks after being inaugurated. The question is
what offence would we adduce he has committed
in less than two weeks? So, it is just a political
drama in order for people to give him sympathy
after rubbishing the judiciary and the legislature.
We are not planning any impeachment but if we
are going to impeach Fayose, he will not be
impeached by our activities but by his own
activities. I said this because you cannot continue
to flout the constitution of Nigeria. We are
worried that a governor of a state will have little
respect for the constitution.
•You are said to have been impeached by the
House. How do you see it?
My purported impeachment by the seven PDP
members is the joke of the year. I was elected on
June 6, 2011 by 25 members and I can only be
removed from that position by 18 members, who
represent two-thirds majority. That means 17 and
a half honourable members cannot impeach me.
So, whatever they are saying is a figment of their
own imagination. And the sitting they had today
(yesterday) is null and void because they are just
seven. So, they could not even form a quorum in
the first instance. How can a sitting that could not
even form a quorum remove the Speaker? They
are just jokers of the century. I still remain the
Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly.
•It was alleged that you all tried to frustrate
Fayose by refusing to approve his
commissioners.
On the issue of approving commissioners and the
constitution of the caretaker committees, our
rules are very clear. There was a letter from the
governor and it was read on the floor of the
House. Our rule says once such a letter is
mentioned, that issue shall be considered on a
future date. It is mandatory because the word
‘shall’ has been used. So, it is not something that
we could address immediately on the floor of the
House because we have to sit and agree on when
to start the screening, give them a date to start
their screening and then invite them for the
proper screening. If we had gone ahead to
complete the whole process on the same day, we
would have violated our rules. On the issue of
caretaker governments, Order 54 line 5 bans us
from discussing court proceedings and that issue
is in court and we are also a party to that suit. So,
our rules forbid us from making reference to it
and we had to comply with this order.
•It is on record that the PDP won the
governorship election in all the 16 local
government areas of Ekiti. Now that this crisis
is happening, are the people of Ekiti behind
you and the APC or will they be happy to kick
out the APC?
Well, as far as I know, the 18 other honourable
members here with me are all being supported in
their various constituencies. What you are seeing
on the streets of Ado Ekiti are PDP thugs. You
know, Fayose is a mobiliser of miscreants. So,
they are PDP thugs. They are sponsored PDP
protesters. So, it is not the true mind of the
people of Ekiti that is being expressed on the
streets. The Ekiti people are already regretting
that they voted Fayose.
What was your relationship with your
colleagues that defected to the PDP shortly
before Fayose was inaugurated?
We had a cordial relationship. The six of them
that defected were the money mongers in the
House. They were the ones asking for money
from left, right and centre. The new Speaker that
they purportedly elected was having money
problems. And out of the six of them that
defected, it is only one that I know that was not a
money monger. So, they can do anything for
money.
Fayose said the renovation of the Assembly
complex did not go through due process and
that many illegalities were involved.
I was not involved in the renovation and so I do
not know if it went through the tender’s board. As
the Speaker, my job is to make laws for Ekiti
people so, I don’t know anything about that but I
am sure that if I was involved, you would have
seen it in the newspapers because Fayose has
been probing all the activities of the Assembly but
has found nothing against me. I am sure if he had
found anything, he would have used it against me
and I challenge him to bring out any fraud he
thinks I have been involved in.
As it stands, you are no longer in office. How
do you intend reclaiming your office?
I am still the Speaker of the Assembly.
Fayose says the APC is also guilty of
perpetrating similar actions against the
legislatures in other states like Rivers and Edo
where the House was shut by Governor Adams
Oshiomhole and that anybody criticising him is
a hypocrite.
Must a governor be supporting an illegality? These
states that you mentioned are APC states and the
people that perpetrated these illegalities are
members of the PDP. Look at what is happening
in Abuja today. The Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, was sprayed
with tear gas and had to smuggle his way in in
order to sit and this is a country that is being
guided by the rule of law. So, we are fast turning
into the old Uganda. From the way things are
going, the PDP may drive us into anarchy.
•Your security details have been withdrawn
amid the crisis. Do you fear for your life?
Well, I fear for my life. I am a mortal and I have
just one life and if it is taken, so be it but I will
stand by my principle. I respect Fayose as my
governor but I do not fear him.
•Fayose said during the tenure of former
Governor Kayode Fayemi, the House was too
weak. He also alleged that the House approved
too many loans, including multi million naira
beds. He said this has plunged the state into
debt.
We were never at loggerheads with Fayemi
because we wanted progress in Ekiti State and
any state where the governor and the House are
on a collision course, that state will be stagnant
and we want development in Ekiti State. The same
cooperation would have been extended to Fayose
but for his behaviour.

Johnnyessence:
the people of ekiti will surely regret it choosing fayose as their governor.

barcanista:
Ekiti haven't seen anything yet`

tit:


will you bomb them?
Oogaaooo!
it is only politics.
it never reach war.

As you can see, 19 of us are committed to the APC
and I don’t have any doubt in mind that any APC
lawmaker will defect any longer. As a matter of
fact, we have taken them (the defectors) to court
because the law stipulates that there must be a
crisis within the party before defection can occur
but there is no crisis in our party, so there was no
reason for them to leave. And the law says when
you defect, you must vacate your seat. So I don’t
see any of our members joining them. Also, the
House rules state that defection can only be done
on the floor of the House or through a letter
addressed to the Speaker but what they did was
to defect in public during Fayose’s inauguration.
So, at best, they are PDP sympathisers.

Fayose's Victory: A Thousand Steps Backward And A Very Sad Day For All Nigerians -
First, I do not know or support Fayemi.
My focus is simply on not repeating all the mistakes that got us to this low level. Fayose's victory is completely more of what got us here in the first place.

For any Government, any country, any society, any group of people or animals to allow an individual that was impeached for corruption and murder to contest for the same position, without first facing all charges against him or her in a court of law is a complete lunacy at its best.
It says a lot not only about our inept leadership style in Nigeria or our subnormal system, but also what the people of Nigeria are mostly made of. It is extremely disappointing that Nigeria as the GIANT of Africa is full of nothing, but an immensely mentally blind group of people....that may not see until the end of time. It is sad indeed!

Whether we like it or not, Nigeria will not move forward unless something severely unprecedented happens. Fayose represents nothing, but the history we want to leave behind if we're serious about moving this nation up to where we should be.

My prayer goes to the innocent children and poor senior citizens all around the country

tit:
The speaker is regretting the 50 million naira bed ex-gov Fayemi promised him.

bitterpenis:
Them never see anything yet

Descartes:
What do you expect fro a stomach infrastructure region?

What you see is what you get

barcanista:
Ekiti haven't seen anything yet`