Parliament

Coup and counter-coup: Ekiti Assembly impeaches Speaker

The crisis bedevilling the Ekiti State House of Assembly took a new turn on Monday as the lawmakers impeached the Speaker of the Assembly, Gboyega Aribisogan, and elected Olubunmi Adelugba as the new Speaker.

The members of the Assembly also suspended Aribisogan indefinitely.

17 out of the 25 lawmakers impeached Aribisogan and elected Adelugba as the new Speaker of the Assembly.

Aribisogan, who emerged as the Speaker of the Assembly after the death of Hon. Funminiyi Afuye, had accused the immediate past governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, of working with the lawmakers to impeach him.

Speaking in an interview on Channels TV on Sunday, Aribisogan stated that Fayemi failed to recognise him as the Speaker of Ekiti Assembly.

“The majority of members of Assembly voted for me but few of them who felt perhaps I did not follow the directive of the former governor, Dr Fayemi, thought that they would make the state ungovernable for even the administration.

“I didn’t have any quarrel with him. I sent a message to him even last night asking, ‘What is happening? Am I no longer one of your loyalists? Why did you not congratulate me?’

“Up till now that I’m speaking with you, he has not done anything. Otherwise, he has been going around calling our members to go and impeach me tomorrow (Monday). That is the truth.

“As I’m speaking with you, seven of our members are locked up in Fem Guest House in Ado Ekiti, planning on how to impeach me tomorrow in cahoots with some of his former aides like the former commissioner for justice,” he had said.

The Star