According to Punch newspaper, the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State has accused the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin, of telling lies against Governor Ayodele Fayose.
The PDP said Omirin lied against Fayose when the speaker alleged that the governor was blackmailing the legislature because the state lawmakers refused to screen the commissioner-nominees sent to the House.
In a statement made available to journalists in Ado Ekiti on Thursday, the state PDP chairman, Chief Idowu Falaye, explained that the House had no reason not to clear the nominees because it was the legislators that demanded for the names and credentials of the nominees, and that they were submitted.
Falaye alleged that the state legislators hurriedly removed the consideration of the commissioner-nominees from the day’s agenda, “after receiving a contrary order from their masters.”
He said, “It was a big surprise and highly disappointing for the speaker to say that the nominees have not brought their credentials when in actual fact the receipt of the documents were certified before the plenary on Tuesday.
“I want to say categorically that the House called for the credentials of the nominees who are members of our party and the three of them submitted while the speaker invited them for screening on Monday before realising that the parliamentary caucus meeting of the House would be meeting on the day.
“He then shifted the meeting till Tuesday; it was along the line that the order to stop the whole process crept in, based on the opinion of the leaders of the opposition All Progressives Congress.
“I can only deduce only one thing from this situation: that the lawmakers are acting on a negative directives and influence of those who don’t want Ekiti to move forward, knowing full well that the governor could only function well with commissioners and local government apparatus.”
Faleye recalled that former Governor Kayode Fayemi of the APC assumed office at the time the PDP was the speaker of the House and the party was in the majority.
“The House didn’t delay the passage of the list of the commissioners and special advisers then for the love of the state rather than pursuing parochial interest,” he added.
Faleye, who stated that the APC legislators under Fayemi were passing three to eight bills within a day, warned that the action of the lawmakers was capable of drawing back the wheels of progress in the state and that such would put the names of the legislators in the black book of Ekiti sons and daughters, the paper reported.
“Whichever political party any of you belong to now will one day fade away but Ekiti will always remain and your footprints would be visible on the sand of time while your actions and inactions in the hallowed chamber would become the judgement of your personality in future,” the PDP chairman said.