bababuff:
This judge should go and sit down and do his job.

The judge, who accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola of financial recklessness, Justice Folahanmi Oloyede, has expressed disagreement with the probe panel set up by the Osun State House of Assembly to investigate her allegations.

The judge, who was represented before the panel by her counsel, Mr. Lanre Ogunlesi (SAN) on Tuesday, said the panel ought to have forwarded the governor’s response to the petitioner.

However, the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Adegboye Akintunde, who is the chairman of the seven-man panel said the committee was not obligated to make the governor’s response available to the judge or her counsel.

Although the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mr. Najeem Salaam, had said during the inauguration of the panel, that their sittings would be done behind closed-doors, the panel allowed journalists to be present for some minutes before they were asked to excuse them.

Ogunlesi, while speaking to journalists after the closed-door session, said the panel ought to forward a copy of the respondent’s reply to the petitioner, saying this would demonstrate to everybody that the panel was ready to do a thorough job.

He said, ” We believe the response of the governor to the petition should be forwarded to the petitioner. We don’t know what the governor has said and the petitioner needs to know.
” It is necessary for the petitioner to be provided with the governor’s response.

What we discussed with them was that for us not to waste time on this matter, answers to the petition by the governor should be made available.

“They said the committee was a fact-finding one, but the issue at stake is a serious one and for the sake of posterity and the people yet unborn, they need to forward the answers to her.

” To do a thorough job, they should forward the governor’s response to the petitioner. There are allegations already that the committee may not do a thorough job, but they should do everything to show to the public that they are ready to be thorough in their investigation.”

The counsel for the petitioner said his client might apologise to the governor if she was given a copy of his response and she discovered that she was wrong.

But the panel said they were not supposed to give the response of the governor to the judge or anybody.

The deputy speaker said the judge violated the rule of the House from the time she sent her petition to the speaker directly without routing it through the member of the House representing her constituency.

He explained that Order 26 of the House, stated that petitions must come from members of the House only and not from an individual. He added that the petition was supposed to be signed by the petitioner on each of the pages, but the judge signed only once.

Akintunde said the petitioner violated another rule of the House by not appearing in person before the panel. This was contrary to the position of the speaker, who said during the inauguration of the panel, that the petitioner or respondent could appear in person or be represented by lawyers.

However, he stated that despite the violations, the House still went ahead to act on the petition.

He said the counsel did not come before the panel with any evidence to substantiate the allegations against the governor.

When reminded that the two weeks given the panel to investigate the petition would expire on Thursday, the panel chairman said he could request for an extension of time if it became necessary.

” We cannot give the respondent’s response to anybody. It means she ( petitioner) is not ready to follow up her petition.

” We won’t send the response to the petitioner, we are not empowered to do that. This is not a trial court but whoever asserts must prove.

“This is not the end of the petition. We are still going to take our report to the floor of the House where every member of the House- 26 of us , will debate it. But she is the one who sent the petition and the onus is on her to prove it,” he said.

In a bid to forestall any breakdown of law and order, the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, in-charge of the National Assembly took over the security at the entrance of the complex.

This was to monitor movement of visitors into National Assembly as both the two chambers resumed plenary after about five weeks break occasioned by the leadership crisis that had threatened the peace and disrupted legislative business.

Vanguard also gathered that the National Security Adviser, NSA, drove into the complex around 10:05 am alongside the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara and the Deputy Speaker, Yussuf Lasun.

The DPO was standing in the rain with some other police officers and security agents that screened visitors going into the assembly complex.
There was the fear that as the House was yet to fully resolve the leadership problem on the sharing formula of the four remaining principal officers position for the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, some strange faces may likely invade the complex.
As at 11am the House was yet to resume sitting but the environs was calm.

nwarosa:
Does it use battery or electricity?

Demmzy15:
OP u don watch "King Kong"?

YORUBA Monarchs have said the slow and steady approach adopted by President Muhammadu Buhari to tackle daunting challenges facing the country has shown that Nigerians have now elected a president with quality and good leadership traits.

The kings said this through the Chairman, Yoruba Obas Conflict Resolution Committee, the Olugbo of Ugbo Kingdom, Oba Fredrick Obateru Akinruntan, Okoro Ajiga1 ‎in Ibadan after being conferred with‎ an award of Entrepreneurship by one of the foremost Ibadan clubs, Omo Ajorosun Club at the weekend.

The monarchs said they were very impressed with the composure of President Buhari during his recent visit to the United States adding that he made the country proud by the way he responded to all questions put to him.‎

Oba Akinruntan stressed further that, “Buhari is very disciplined, well structured, very intelligent, well composed. He was well composed in the US with the way he answered questions that were directed at him. He was so confident and tackled each question one after the other.

“He was not ruffled or disturbed but felt homely. Nigerians have just elected a president with quality leadership. I want Nigerians to be patient with him because Nigeria’s problem is not something that can be solved overnight. It is only through a gradual process that we can solve it”, Oba Akinruntan added.

The appellation of ‘Baba Go Slow’ given to President Buhari which he himself acknowledged in far away US “is what best suits the country now in view of the enormous challenges confronting us and which need painstaking effort being deployed by the President”.

He added that used Ugboland in Ilaje area of Ondo State was very significant to the Yoruba.

According to him, “Ugboland is the first to arrive in Yorubaland and we are the owner of the Yorubas. A lot of people have testified to this and they include the Late Profs Atanda, Akinjiogbin, Ade Ajayi, Ogeh in their various classical books on history relating to Yoruba race. The same testimony has been given by Oba of Benin and Alaafin of Oyo”.

“We are the only town in Yorubaland that can boast of crude oil today and we can also take care of other Yoruba towns, so my counsel is for our people to read extensively so as to remove their ignorance and be able to make informed comments whenever the need arises”, he stated.

While appreciating those who conferred the award on him, he said, “I am happy for the honour bestowed on me by the Omo Ajorosun Club, although I never expected that Ibadan could honour me.

“I grew up here and I have understood a lot of things about this city. They are very accommodating and they are wonderful human beings. Many of the members of this club are my friends and they know a lot about me.

“This was the same way former President Bill Clinton invited me to US to honour me and I was also curious then as to why I was invited. Clinton told me that he read how I started my business with a meagre amount of money and that it was rare for many Nigerians to even remember how they started their businesses”.