Ekiti gets First Woman Speaker as Aribisogan is Impeached

Ekiti State Assembly Speaker, Gboyega Aribisogan, has been impeached and suspended indefinitely by members of the Assembly.

Olubunmi Adelugba has now been elected as the new speaker.

It was gathered that seventeen out of the 25 members impeached the speaker and elected a new one.

The house had been in leadership tussle since last week Wednesday which graduated to the sealing of Assembly Complex by the Police.

The impeached Speaker had also accused the Former governor of the state, Kayode Fayemi of behind his impeachment saga.

It was learnt that the suspended lawmakers are barred from 1.5km radius of the premises of the House of Assembly Complex

They are also to hand over properties of government in their possession to the Clerk of the House.

According to some of the terms of the suspension, any of the suspended members wishing to be reabsorbed must write a letter of apology to the leadership of the House apart from the allegations contained in the report of the adhoc investigative comittee, the Deputy Speaker Rt. Hon. Hakeem Jamiu also frowned at the impeached Speaker for denigrating the image of the House by taking the internal affairs of the house to the social media. This is unacceptable.

Deputy Speaker, Rt. Hon Hakeem Jamiu who presided over the plenary until the election of Rt. Hon. Mrs Olubunmi Adelugba, had earlier dissolved all existing Principal positions and appointed Hon. Johnson Oyekola Bode Adeoye as the new Leader of Govt Business while he also resuscitated the already dissolved Committee on Appropriation.

The new Speaker thanked her colleagues for electing her as Speaker and promised not to take their trust for granted.

The Speaker later adjourned the House sine die.

Aribisogan had been elected last Tuesday as the new Speaker after the burial of former Speaker Funminiyi Afuye who died weeks earlier.

However, there was tension in the premises of the Assembly on Thursday as policemen took over claiming that there was an intelligence that some people were planning to attack the House.

However, NPO Reports later learnt that Aribisogan’s election as Speaker did not go down well with leaders of the All Progressive Congress in the state who had earlier met to take a common decision on the choice of Bunmi Adelugba.

However, things took a different turn on the floor as Aribisogan suddenly declared interest and was supported by some other lawmakers.

As soon as he emerged, leaders of the party were said to have met hurriedly to insist that Aribisogan must be removed to pave the way for the choice of the party leaders.

Adelugba is also said to be the choice of former Governor of the state, Kayode Fayemi.