Oyo Assembly impeaches deputy governor

Rauf Olaniyan

The members of the Oyo State House of Assembly have impeached the state deputy governor, Mr Rauf Olaniyan.

Olaniyan’s removal followed the Oyo Assembly’s adoption of the report of the seven-man panel constituted by the state Chief Judge, Justice Munta Abimbola, to investigate allegations of gross misconduct against the deputy governor.

In a report read at plenary on Monday by the Majority Leader of the Assembly, Hon. Sanjo Adedoyin, the deputy governor was found guilty of all the allegations levelled against him.

The lawmakers, after considering the panel’s recommendations, pronounced the impeachment of Olaniyan, adding that it should take immediate effect.

The Oyo Assembly had in June directed Justice Abimbola to constitute a panel to investigate Olaniyan.

It served the deputy governor with a notice of impeachment over allegations of gross misconduct, abuse of office, financial recklessness, among others, following his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Olaniyan was elected in 2019 on a joint ticket with the incumbent governor, Seyi Makinde on the platform of the PDP before he dumped the party for the APC.

Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan, the state capital, had also dismissed a case filed by Olaniyan to stop his impeachment by the lawmakers.

Delivering judgement, Justice Ladiran Akintola said the lawmakers and all the defendants were right on the procedures taken.

The presiding judge ruled that the originating summons filed by the claimant was purely legislative procedure and not judicial in line with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The Star