Mimiko says speaker’s removal illegal, but she’ll step aside

Ondo State’s Governor Olusegun Mimiko has described the recent removal of the state House of Assembly Speaker, Mrs. Jumoke Akindele as unconstitutional.

While noting that the event was an unfortunate one, Mimiko, however, said that Akindele has resolved to step down to allow peace reign.

The governor who stated this when he spoke with State House correspondents on Tuesday in Abuja, after a closed door meeting with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, in his office at the Presidential Villa Abuja, argued that it was illegal for 13 out of the 26 members of the assembly to have gathered and removed the Speaker when according to the provision of the law, two-third of the members are needed to do such.

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“The sitting Speaker now has made it abundantly clear that she is ready to step aside, she is ready to resign her position. But the group that purportedly impeached her, not even a simple majority can impeach the Speaker; it has to be two thirds.

“That is to tell you about the fact that 13 out of 26 members of the House do not have constitutional or legal empowerment to impeach the Speaker.

“But as I speak with you now, she is ready to step down any time once the House is properly constituted.”

The governor, who noted that some elder statesmen and leaders in the state are looking at how to resolve the crisis in the state Assembly, said he did not believe that the crisis has anything to do with the politics of his planned submission of the state’s 2017 Appropriation Bill to the House.

 

 

 

 

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