Crisis in Ondo House of Assembly deepens

NINE of the 26 members of the Ondo House of Assembly on Thursday dissolved all the standing committees of the House, appointed three new principal officers and amended this year budget thereby deepening the crisis in the legislative arm of government.

At the plenary presided over by the embattled speaker of the House, David Oleyelogun, the House also appointed three new principal officers which include Suleiman Maito (Majority Leader), Abayomi Akinruntan (Deputy Majority Leader) and Kazeem Suleiman (Parliamentary Secretary).

The House also reaffirmed the suspension of 15 members who purportedly impeached the speaker, Oleyelogun and his deputy, Mr Ogundeji Iroju.

It will be recalled that 15 members of the House last Friday impeached Oloyelogun and Iroju as a speaker and deputy speaker respectively for alleged gross financial recklessness and misconduct.

The Deputy Speaker, Iroju, while speaking at the plenary said that the House had not committed any offence by suspending the lawmakers noting that the nine lawmakers that sat formed two/third majority of the members of the House.

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Iroju who represents Odigbo state constituency said the House has remained peaceful since the suspension of the aggrieved members and thereby warned the suspended members against acts that could cause crisis within the House and Ondo State at large.

Also, the nine lawmakers amended the 2018 Appropriation amendment Act into law.

The embattled speaker of the House, David Oleyelogun said “the amendment of the 2018 appropriation law became imperative to allow the state government execute some projects and also implement new policies which are beneficial to the people of Ondo State.

Oleyelogun said the House took the decision after considering the recommendations of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation.

He said the House resolved that approval be given to the pooling of the sum of N10 billion from capital expenditure component of the 2018 budget and the reallocation of the funds without any alteration to the budget size.

Also, he said the House approved the pooling of N4.2 billion from recurrent expenditure component of the 2018 budget and the
re-allocation of the funds without any alteration to the budget size.