10th June, 2015
Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan
Peace pervaded the hallow chamber of Oyo State House of Assembly today during the inauguration of the 8th assembly by the state governor, Abiola Ajimobi until the members of All Progressive Party (APC) started moves to deny Accord party the position of “Minority Leader”.
Shortly after Governor Ajimobi inaugurated the house, a ranking legislator, Michael Adeyemo representing Ibarapa East State Constituency and first-timer, Honourable Musa Abdulwasi representing Saki West emerged as a speaker and a deputy speaker respectively.
Other newly constituted executive members of the House were: Majority Leader, Kehinder Subair from Ibadan South West 1, Minority Leader, from Labour Party, Olagunju Joshua from Orire, Chief Whip, Olafisoye Akinmoyede from Lagelu, Deputy Chief Whip, Olaleru Adebayo from Kajola and Chairman, Parliamentary Caucus, Ajanaku Samuel from Ibadan South 2.
Following the nomination of Olagunju of LP, an honourable from Oyo East/West, Honourable Muyideen Olagunju of Accord Party through a privilege motion called the attention of the House to the fact that the nomination was out of place because the nominated legislator is from LP with six lawmakers, adding that, Accord Party should produce the Minority Leader because it has eight lawmakers.
The motion was seconded and all the efforts by APC members who are the majority in the House to let the nomination scale through proved abortive until the APC members voted for the suspension of Order 9, Rule 1 of the state assembly which says that minority leader shall be nominated by minority party.
Some APC chieftains who did not want their names mentioned condemned the political scheme of the APC lawmakers. “This shows that there is no difference between APC and PDP because we are also committing the crimes that PDP committed which we were condemning. It is clear that Accord has eight members and Labour Party has six members. For the right thinking person and according to the constitution, minority leader goes to Accord. This sets a bad precedence by saying that they set the order that gives the right to Accord in this situation to nominate minority leader as a minority party. This is absolutely unfair. I condemn it in totality. But I don’t want my name to be mentioned in your report so that they will not be witch-hunting me but this is my personal opinion.”
In his address, Speaker Adeyemo who attributed Governor Ajimobi’s victory in the last governorship poll to his achievements in the first term in office promised never to disappoint the governor in any form.
“I am assuring your excellency that this 8th Assembly shall cooperate with the executives in the task of giving the state a well co-ordinated direction in governance and politics.”
“To the faithful and residents of the state, the Assembly being inaugurated today will not be a rubber stamp rather it will be mindful of its constitutional responsibilities. We shall be up and doing in our oversight functions. We also want to urge members of the public to support this administration in view of the current economic and financial challenges that the state and the country are facing. We all must prepare to sacrifice for better and great tomorrow.”
Governor Ajimobi who publicly disclosed that his wife, Florence will henceforth be addressed as wife of the governor and not first lady, called for a robust collaboration between the executive and legislature.
However, some members of the correspondents chapel in the state had it rough in the hands of some overzealous policemen who denied them access to the venue of the inauguration and thereafter teargassed them.
Some of the policemen said that not all the journalists could be allowed to cover the event urging those that were denied access to get the story from their colleagues who covered the event.
One of the policemen known as Inspector Kayode who identified himself as the security guard to the governor mounting one of the entrances to the hallow chamber said that he would not allow newsmen to pass through the entrance he was manning to the chamber.
Kayode who is notorious for assaulting journalists, was begged by the chairman of the governor’s press crew but he stood his ground.
Among journalists that suffered in the hands of policemen was one Peter Daniel from Ajilete FM who after displaying his ID, was teargassed and sent away.
Subsequently, reporters and camera men were smuggled into the hallow chamber.