Faction Disagrees As Akeredolu Met With Ondo House of Assembly

Ondo State Gov Akeredolu met with the embattled speaker of the Assembly, Mrs. Jumoke Akindele and other 12 other lawmakers at the governor’s office in Akure, the state capital on Monday, and was said to have appealed to them to find ways to resolve the crisis.

The leadership crisis rocking the Ondo State House of Assembly has not reached a resolution point as the Malachi Coker’s faction of the lawmakers insisted that the purported impeached principal officers of the Assembly must step aside in spite of the efforts of the state governor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu to resolve the crisis.

Akindele, the deputy speaker, Mr. Fatai Olotu and the majority leader of the Assembly, Mr. Ifedayo Akinsoyonu were purportedly impeached by 13 members of the Assembly in January over an allegation of financial misappropriation.

After the purported impeachment, Mr. Malachi Coker, Ayodele Arowele and Olamide George were appointed as speaker, deputy speaker and majority leader in acting capacity but Akindele insisted that she was still the authentic speaker of the Assembly .

Since the crisis begun the lawmakers had not sat down for legislative activities in the Assembly. To this end Governor Akeredolu was said to have appealed to the lawmakers to settle the crisis amicably.

The Chairman House Committee on Information, Mr. Siji Akindiose who spoke with our correspondent in Akure on Tuesday said the governor at the meeting advised them to go back to the Assembly and resolve the crisis among themselves amicably.

He said, “Our meeting with the governor has shown that he (Akeredolu) is a very fair-minded person. He has shown that he is a person we can work with. He insisted that we should have amicable resolution and we believe in him.

“He insists that the 26 of us must come together and work for, not for him but for the people that elected us. He did not take side and we have expressed our desire to him to do our best in the interest of our people”

However, the spokesman of the Coker’s faction of the lawmakers, Mr. Iroju Ogundeji said the meeting of Akeredolu with other faction had not changed their decision to remove Akindele as the speaker of the House.

Ogundeji, who spoke on Orange FM, Akure on Tuesday said all the impeached principals officers remained impeached, saying particularly that Akindele had committed an impeachable offence.

He said,”I am aware that the governor has looked into the matter but as far as we are concerned, we believe that the course of the law must prevail.

” The issue of impeachment against the three principal officers has come to stay. We are talking about resolution but the subject matter of the impeachment has not been resolved. What led to the impeachment was fraud and it had not been resolved.”

The governor had scheduled to meet all the 26 lawmakers before the week runs out.