Ekiti Assembly ‘highway sitting’ shameful - APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has described Wednesday’s sitting on the highway by members of the House of Assembly as shameful.

It said it was the worst form of mediocrity that assaulted the people’s sensibilities.



The party, which described the lawmakers as lacking integrity and accomplices in the promotion of the alleged financial crime over which they were defending the governor, wondered when it became political persecution to answer for an alleged crime against the state.

It regretted that the hallowed chamber of the Ekiti parliament was peopled by characters, “who should not have qualified to be councillors, but were imposed as candidates by Governor Ayo Fayose in place of well-educated and exposed people, to enable him exploit their ignorance for personal benefit.”

In a statement yesterday by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, APC listed instances when the legislators allegedly displayed “crass incompetence and acted as accomplices in the desecration of representative governance, tolerating abuses of the parliamentary practice and conduct to the chagrin of Nigerians.”

Olatunbosun said by relocating plenary to the streets in protest against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC’s) probe of Fayose’s alleged complicity over alleged diversion of arms cash traced to his account, the lawmakers “have shown the world that they belong to the gutter where they have moved the Assembly to.”

He said the party was shocked that the representatives of the people could oppose the wishes of the people, who wanted the allegation against the governor investigated; to retrieve state’s funds, to enable workers to be paid six months’ salary arrears.

Regretting that members had proved APC right over the fears it raised last year on the quality of the Assembly membership profile, Olatunbosun said the party had been vindicated that the legislators lacked competence, integrity and independence of mind required for the serious business of law-making.

He said: “We are not surprised about the shameless theatrics of the rubber stamp Ekiti State House of Assembly members because they are behaving true to type as we predicted during their inauguration that nothing good would come out of this Assembly because of the character and quality of individuals.

“It is a disservice to representative government that a group of lawmakers, who are expected to be loyal to their constituents, have jettisoned that cardinal principle of democracy and replaced it with loyalty to an individual, whose greed is inflicting untold hardship on the people.

“It is unfortunate that the Assembly members have abandoned their primary role of lawmaking for professional street protest in favour of a man who has milked the state dry.

“This is the shame of a state reputed for accomplished intellectuals and men and women of substance, which is a fallout of the mistake of June 21, 2014, when Ekiti went to the dogs.

“We challenge the lawmakers, who have shamelessly constituted themselves into a nuisance by shifting their plenary to the street of Ado-Ekiti in protest against the Federal Government, to go to the EFCC office in Abuja to prove their innocence.”

The party spokesman said the Assembly had not passed any bill beneficial to the people, including failing to defend them when Fayose imposed suffocating taxes on them.

Olatunbosun recalled instances when members displayed crass incompetence and acted as accomplices in the desecration of representative governance, tolerating abuses of the parliamentary practice and conduct to the chagrin of Nigerians.

He said: “This is a House that did nothing when Fayose appeared in tattered jeans and T-shirt to present the 2016 budget, and passed same with his improvised gavel.

“At the inauguration of the Assembly, Nigerians were shocked seeing members prostrating for the governor, calling him their father, while they had no say when the governor embarked on the airport project that was not in the 2016 Appropriation Law.”

Olatunbosun added: “Many of the so-called Assembly members have explanations to make concerning their academic qualifications and this is what they call persecution.

“This is a simple matter that requires presentation of certificates if they are actually genuine, rather than politicising the issue.

“This is the same House that lied shamelessly to the world that DSS invaded the Assembly, shooting sporadically, although nothing of such happened, just the same way they lied that four of them were abducted, whereas only one member was invited by the DSS.”

He dared them to take their protest to Abuja if they are not afraid of EFCC, just as they did when they protested in favour of Fayose at foreign embassies.

Olatunbosun berated the legislators for turning themselves into Fayose’s slaves to help him sustain his alleged crimes, wondering why members that had not taken salary for six months could defend a governor, who routinely took his monthly N250 million security vote while millions of naira was allegedly traced to the accounts of his family by the EFCC.