By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
Members of the Oyo State House of Assembly on Tuesday ordered the Divisional Police Officers in charge of Asabari Local Council Development Area, Irepo Local Government Area and Lagelu West Local Council Development Area to arrest anyone parading himself as caretaker chairmen for these council areas.
The lawmakers handed down the order after deliberating on a point of order raised by Hon. Gbenga Oyekola (Atiba State Consituency) who called the attention of the House to the impending danger on the inaguration of two rejected nominees and substitution of the screened nominee for Lagelu West LCDA.
Hon Oyekola pointed out that the House screened 55 nominees but that Governor Abiola Ajimobi went ahead to inuagurate 57 nominees by not taking into consideration the two nominees earlier rejected by the house.
According to the lawmaker,“there is impending crisis in Lagelu West LCDA over who is the authentic chairman because the person who was screened has been replaced with another person without the knowledge of the house”.
“The house screened 55 nominees and rejected two, but to my utmost dismay the two were swear-in .Also, we screened Akeem Aransi for Lagelu West LCDA but infortunatelly another person was swore-in and assumed office. On that note I want the house to produce the copy of the letter we sent to the executive. We sent the name to the executive and they received it”he said.
Honourables Olusegun Olaleye (Ibadan North 2), Olawumi Oladeji and Muideen Olagunju in their contributions condemned the action of the executive arm describing it as “illegality”.
Speaker of the House, Honourable Michael Adeyemo at the plenary said “the issue raised has come to the knowledge of the house and actions would be taken on it to invite the Secretary to the State Government, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftancy Affairs. We can’t say yes or not”.
“We can’t say yes or not. We have the right to screen, we don’t nominate, the fault is not from us”he said.
The Speaker then read a letter from the Governor dated 6th April 2017 notifying the house on the replacement of Akeem Aransi for Abiodun Oladeji,adding that the letter was received last week but could not be read because it was not received during plenary days.
Honurable Adeyemo then ordered the DPOs in charge of Asabari and Lagelu west LCDAs to arrest those parading themselves as the Chairmen in these areas to prevent outbreak of law and order in the areas.
“Anybody that is parading himself as Chairman for Asabari LCDA, Irepo LGA and Lagelu West LCDA shoud be arrested. The two, Asabari and Irepo, there is no chairman there. On the issue of Lagelu, the person that was swore-in but not screened should also be arrested and the man that was screened but was not inagurate should stop parading himself as the chairman, doing so he should be arrested”.
The House also invited the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Olalekan Alli and the Permanet Secretary, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftancy Affairs, Mrs. Hanna Ogunesan for questinoing over the matter.
According to Honourable Adeyemo, the SSG who is in charge of the state correspondences and the Permanent Secretary in the ministry should be called to answer the questions bothering on the swearing in of the rejected nominees and the substitution of names.
“We as the legistlative arm, we have to uphold the principle of rule of law. Members have said their own, we have to invite and get across to others.
It would be recalled that the house last week dropped Mudasir Agbaje (Irepo LGA) and Taiwo Adeleke (Asabari LCDA) for issues of certificate and performance at the screening exercise.
