The newly-elected Speaker of Ondo State House of Assembly, Mr. Olamide George, on Sunday called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to come to his aid and that of his colleagues, saying their lives were being threatened.
He stated this 48 hours after he became the Speaker of the Assembly, following the impeachment of the former Speaker and his deputy, Messrs Bamidele Oloyeloogun and Iroju Ogundeji respectively on Friday.
The 18 members of the Assembly had signed and carried out the impeachments, after which George, who represents Akure North State Constituency, became the Speaker; and Abimbola Fajolu from Ile Oluji/Oke Igbo State Constituency emerged the deputy Speaker.
Shortly after the impeachment, members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers Union in the state, led by their chairman, Mr. Jacob Adebo, invaded the Assembly and beat up the lawmakers who were holding a parliamentary meeting.
Employees of the Assembly and journalists were also assaulted.
George, who spoke with journalists, alleged that since Friday when the impeachment was carried out, members of his family and those of his deputy had been threatened over the impeachment.
He urged the President to save democracy from collapse.
He said “We are duly elected members of the state Assembly, acting within the confines of the constitutional duties at plenary.
“It is an open secret that N1.3bn was approved and released for the 2018 budget of the Assembly. The former Speaker and deputy speaker jointly expended over a billion in the first quarter of 2018 without approval.
“This is unacceptable to the people of Ondo whom we are representing and that is why we chose the path of honour to partner with Buhari to flush corruption out of Ondo.”
The new Speaker, who alleged that thugs were led to the Assembly by the state chairman of the NURTW and assaulted the lawmakers in the presence of the state chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Ade Adetimehin and the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Gbenga Adeyanju, said there were video and pictorial documentations of the alleged vandalization of cars and properties worth several millions of naira by thugs under the alleged supervision of the security agents.
Also speaking, the new deputy Speaker, Fadoju, called on Inspector General of Police to immediately redeploy the Commissioner of Police, Adeyanju, from the state, accusing him of bias.
He said the safety of their lives were not guaranteed with Adeyanju remaining the Commissioner of Police.
Former lecturer of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Professor Richard Akindele was on Monday sentenced to 6 years in jail for demanding sex to pass his student,Monica Osagie by Justice Maurine Onyetenu of the Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo The accused had pleaded not guilty to the charge of sexual harassment preferred against him by the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offenses Commission, ICPC. He had since then been remanded in prison custody following objection to his bail by the prosecution ICPC. When the case came up on Monday, Richard opted to change his earlier plea and admitted guilty of the offences as charged. He was arraigned before Justice onyetenu on November 19 for alleged sexual harassment. Meanwhile, efforts by the defence counsel to suspend the sentencing and negotiate for plea bargain failed, as Justice Onyetenu frowned at the rampant cases of students harassment by lecturers. Justice Onyetenu said “the plea bargain is not absolute. Th...
Comments
Post a Comment