9th June, 2010
The chairman of Emure Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Sesan Aruwaji, has been suspended by the state House of Assembly over allegation of graft.
The council chairman was suspended after the House adopted the report of its Committee on Public Petitions and Anti-corruption headed by the Deputy Speaker, Saliu Adeoti.
Speaker of the Assembly, Tunji Odeyemi, had directed the deputy speaker to present to the House, the report of his committee, which subsequently recommended that the local government boss be suspended over allegation of execution of substandard projects.
Some senior civil servants had earlier been suspended by the committee, which investigated the council, following allegations of corruption levelled against the chairman.
The vice chairman of the local government has been ordered to take over the leadership of the council while Aruwaji’s suspension lasts.
In another development, the chairman of Ikere Local Government Area of Ekiti State, Olasunkanmi Ogunbiyi, was last weekend attacked by irate youths in Ikere Ekiti, over the proposed relocation of the College of Education in the town to a new place.
The council boss was attacked at the palace of the Ogoga of Ikere, Oba Adegboye Akayejo, where a meeting called by youths in the community was scheduled to take place.
The meeting was called to deliberate on the seven-day ultimatum given to the community by the state governor, Segun Oni, to choose between retaining the college or hosting the University of Education.
Oni, through a statement by his Press Secretary, Wale Ojo-Lanre, had asked the people of Ikere to choose either of the two institutions.
LG Circuit gathered that immediately the chairman came forward to address the gathering at the venue of the meeting, the aggrieved youths shouted him down, while stones and other dangerous weapons were hurled at him, describing him as a traitor to the community.
Policemen and other security operatives, however, quickly moved the chairman out of the venue of the meeting.