The crisis in the Ondo State House of Assembly has worsened, with 21 of the 26 lawmakers accusing Speaker Olamide Oladiji of convening only four plenary sessions in the last seven months and demanding his resignation.
The aggrieved lawmakers also suspended legislative activities indefinitely, insisting that plenary sessions would not resume until the Speaker steps down.
The crisis is linked to allegations surrounding ₦44 million reportedly connected to the reordering of the Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (OSOPADEC) budget.
Speaking anonymously, one of the lawmakers said the Assembly had been unable to effectively carry out its constitutional duties because of the Speaker’s handling of legislative sittings.
“We have had only four plenary sittings since January. We are not on recess, yet the House has hardly sat,” the lawmaker said.
The lawmakers alleged that the Speaker deliberately delayed plenary whenever disagreements arose within the Assembly.
“Whenever he notices there are issues, he will not call plenary. He waits until the tension has died down before calling the House to sit, sometimes after a month. That has been his pattern,” the lawmaker added.
They also claimed that the House remained inactive whenever the Speaker travelled, despite not being on official recess.
The Assembly’s spokesperson and Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Olatunji Fabiyi, confirmed that plenary sittings had been infrequent, saying the situation had affected legislative activities.
Fabiyi explained that while the Speaker convenes plenary sessions, parliamentary meetings could also be called by the Majority Leader.
He revealed that lawmakers recently met with the Speaker and informed him that he had lost the confidence of the majority of members.
“We told him categorically that you are not enjoying the confidence of members again. And we told him to go and resign voluntarily so that it won’t have any negative impact on his political future,” Fabiyi said.
Reacting to the allegations, Speaker Olamide Oladiji dismissed the claims and challenged his critics to provide evidence.
“Let them provide the evidence. At times, we might not have plenary sitting, but we have parliamentary sitting. Parliamentary sitting is as important as plenary sitting,” the Speaker said.
He insisted that parliamentary meetings are recognised as statutory meetings and rejected the allegations made against him.
