Suspended Ekiti Lawmaker Declares Self Minority Leader
Suspended member of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Chief Gboyega Aribisogan Tuesday said he has assumed the position of the majority leader of the state assembly.
Aribisogan who is representing the Ikole constituency 1 at the assembly has been having a running battle with other members of the assembly since October 7, 2016 when he was slammed with 180 sitting day suspension.
Addressing newsmen Tuesday in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital, the lawmaker said he assumed the position following his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on account of the division and factionalisation of the PDP to the All Progressives Congress on June 27,2017.
Aribisogan who vowed to go to the assembly in the next few weeks to resume duties disclosed that he had written his party, APC on the development.
“Today as the only member of APC in the assembly, I am the voice of the opposition. I have written to the party secretariat on my new status as the minority leader which the party has recognized”
Meanwhile, the State House of Assembly said it has suspended the embattled lawmaker indefinitely.
At a press conference jointly addressed by the Speaker, Rt. Hon Kola Oluwawole and the Chairman, House committee on Information, Hon Samuel Omotoso said the lawmaker who was currently on suspended for 180 legislative days was further handed the indefinite suspension after been found guilty by two committees which investigated him.
Omotoso said the indefinite suspension slammed on the lawmaker was based on acts amounting to gross misconducts and dereliction of duties.
“It is on record that the illegal invasion of the Ekiti State House of Assembly with thugs by the suspended member, Hon Gboyega Aribisogan on the 8th of June, led to severe disruptions of lawful activities, chaos, disorder, confusion, pandemonium and mayhem within and outside the premises.
“This House of Assembly is empowered by our standing orders and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to award this punitive measure and the suspension should naturally terminate on August 17th 2017.
“It is worth putting it on record that his suspension came weeks after the House of Representatives suspended one of its members, Hon Jubrin for the same number of days, 180 legislative days.
“It is therefore logical that if Hon Jubrin of the National Assembly was suspended weeks before Hon Aribisogan for the same number of days, then it’s trite to say that Hon Jubrin should resume his duties before him. Up till now, Hon Jubrin has not resumed at the National Assembly.
“Rather than allow decency and decorum to prevail with clear penitence and self-purifications of his contaminated system, which is incompatible with the existence of this hallowed institution, what we had was a forceful invasion of this house by Hon Aribisogan on the 8th of June 2017 with thugs and pressmen, insisting that he had served out his suspension and hence resumed forcefully with immediate effect.”