My impeachment is the greatest joke of the year - ‘Impeached’ Ekiti speaker, Adewale Omirin

The ‘impeached’ Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin, has described his purported removal by members of the Assembly as “the greatest joke of the year.”

Omirin, who addressed a press conference, in company with other Ekiti All Progressives Congress lawmakers, at an hotel in Lagos on Thursday, said he was still the Speaker.


He described as laughable that seven members of the House, all members of the Peoples Democratic Party, could impeach him when it was clearly stipulated by law that only a two-third majority could remove a speaker.

He said since the Ekiti Assembly had 26 members, it would require at least 18 members of the Assembly to remove him.

He said, “My purported impeachment by the seven PDP members is the greatest joke of the year. I was elected on June 6, 2011 by 25 members and I can only be removed from that position by 18 members, which is the two-third majority.

“That means 17-and-a-half honourable members cannot impeach me. So, whatever they are saying is a figment of their own imagination. And the sitting they had today (Thursday) is null and void because they are just seven.

“So they could not even form a quorum in the first instance so how can a sitting that could not even form a quorum, remove the Speaker? So they are just jokers of the century. I still remain the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly.”

Omirin said he and other members of the Assembly were willing to work with Fayose in the overall interest of the state.

Omirin’s deputy, Mr. Adetunji Orisalade, argued that only the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker (in the absence of the Speaker) could summon a sitting. He, therefore, wondered how seven members of the Assembly were able to meet and impeach Omirin.

He denied the allegations that the lawmakers were out to frustrate Fayose by refusing to approve commissioners for him.

The Majority Leader of the Ekiti Assembly, Mr. Churchill Adedipe, said it was unfortunate that Governor Ayodele Fayose was supporting illegality.

He alleged that Fayose’s grand plan was to weaken the judiciary and the legislature in order to become the “ultimate ruler” of Ekiti.