Nine members of the Ondo State House of Assembly led by the recently sacked Speaker Bamidele Oleyelogun on Monday convened a sitting of the legislature, saying the removal initiated by the Olamide George faction of the house on Friday was illegal.
Presiding over the eight other lawmakers, Oleyelogun said his impeachment did not satisfy the constitutional requirement of a two-thirds majority for the removal of a speaker of the house.
Eighteen, out of 26 members of the House were reported to have signed the notice of impeachment, initially showing that the house perhaps had the necessary two-thirds majority of the members.
But, at the sitting on Monday, two of the house members, Sunday Olajide and Olusola Oluyde, whose names appeared on the impeachment notice, denied that they were part of the move for the leadership change.
The two lawmakers claimed that their signatures were forged by the faction in the bid to remove Oleyelogun and his deputy.
Olajide said he was neither informed nor briefed on the impeachment, saying he got wind of the removal from a friend via the telephone.
He said it was criminal for anyone to forge his signature without his consent, noting that he was not part of any meeting and did not participate in the impeachment process.
Oluyede who distanced himself from the process said he was shocked to find his name and signature on the notice.
“They claimed to have formed two-thirds as a condition to impeach the speaker and the deputy speaker, whereas they were less in number as Hon. Sunday Olajide and Hon. Olusola Oluyede were not part of the attempted impeachment,” he said.
Oleyelogun however, called on security operatives in the state to investigate and prosecute the new speaker, Hon. George and his faction for forgery.
Addressing journalists after the plenary, the embattled deputy speaker, Ogundeji Iroju, argued that to impeach any principal officer, speaker and deputy speaker, the constitution must be followed.
“We are 26 honourable members and for any principal of the house of Assembly to be impeached, the two-thirds must be complete and (they must) sign the impeachment paper before such impeachment would be carried out.
“So out of that 18 members that signed the impeachment paper, two of them have said now that their signatures were forged. That means the two-thirds have not been fulfilled in that regard.
“In view of this, the house led by the Rt. Hon Oleyelogun has taken the decision to call on the security agents to probe that (those) purported signatures and names so that those involved in that forgery will quickly be brought to book and questioning.
“Also the house today sat on the 2018 appropriation bill which was sent to the house by the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu for amendment. It has passed through the first and second reading and it has been sent to the appropriate committee for scrutiny, this is what we have done today at the plenary.
“This is to tell the whole world that the Oleyelogun still remains the speaker and I, Ogundeji Iroju, still remain as the deputy speaker of the house, the purported impeachment was not in line with the constitution,” Ogundeji said.
