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Aregbesola’s probe splits Assembly

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The decision of the Osun State House of Assembly to set up a probe panel to investigate the allegations of financial recklessness leveled against Governor Rauf Aregbesola by Justice Folahanmi Oloyede, has not gone down well with the minority PDP members in the house.

The Speaker of the House, Mr. Najeem Salaam, on Thursday inaugurated the seven-man committee headed by the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Akintunde Adegboye, with a two weeks mandate to investigate the matters and report back to the House.

Although the ruling All Progressives Congress has 24 lawmakers out of the 26 members in the House, none of the two PDP lawmakers was included in the committee.

When asked why the House excluded lawmakers from the opposition party in the committee, the Speaker explained that the House of Assembly was one as there was no division among the legislators along party lines.

But the Minority Leader, Mr. Oladejo Makinde, a PDP member, who represents Ife Central at the House, kicked against the exclusion of the members of the PDP from the committee.

While speaking with journalists after the inauguration of the committee, Makinde said he disagreed with the explanation of the Speaker, saying there was no way the ‘lopsided committee’ would be transparent against Aregbesola who is also from the ruling party.

Read also: Osun Judge wants Aregbesola impeached

Oloyede, a serving judge in Osun State Judiciary, had written a petition to the House against the governor asking the lawmakers to impeach him based on the allegations contained in her petition.

The Speaker said that it would be necessary for the petitioner and the governor to appear before the committee which would sit in camera.

He said, “I acknowledge that the whole world is waiting for what we have to do with the petition forwarded to us by Justice Folahanmi Oloyede. I must disclose to you that Governor Rauf Aregbesola has obliged us his response to the petition and we have constituted a committee to look into the matter with a view to investigating the allegations leveled against him and I am confident that the honourable men in this committee would do justice to the matter before them without fear or favour.

“The two of them – the judge and the governor – will be invited separately. Some of them can employ the services of lawyers but their physical appearance will be necessary. This will allow them to give evidence to back up their positions if they have any.”

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  1. Adeyemi Jelili Bolarinwa

    July 18, 2015 at 4:11 am

    This is a complete waste of time & public funds. How would legislators whom Aregbesola ratified, campaigned 4 & sponsored their elections now come up and impeach Aregbesola based on allegations indirectly sponsored by a defeated PDP candidate of Omisore through a shameless serving judge? It is purely & undoubtedly going 2 be an exercise in futility. It is basically a show of Makkaba dance. The judge was so stupid dat she allowed herself 2 be used by politicians and dragged her name in a political mockery. Her action is very alien 2 d judicial mode of operations in a democratic dispensation. I doubt if she would be allowed 2 retain her job after d kangaro trial, trust politicians, they will frustrate her out of office & will definitely be in d world of her own when d cheaps are down.

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