Ekiti Assembly suspends recess for Fayose

The Ekiti State House of Assembly on Monday resumed work four days after the Speaker, Adewale Omirin, declared a month recess.

The PUNCH learnt that the Assembly started with the parliamentary, where it set the agenda for the week.

It would on Tuesday (today) begin plenary at its hallowed chamber in preparation for the screening of special advisers and commissioners to be appointed by the state Governor, Ayodele Fayose.

In a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti, the Special Adviser to the Speaker, Media, Mr. Wole Olujobi, said the resumption was in the overriding public interest.

He said all the 26 members of the state House of Assembly had been contacted on the new development, assuring that the House sitting won't be tensed as feared.

It will be recalled that six All Progressives Congress lawmakers on Thursday at the inauguration ceremony of Fayose defected to the Peoples Democratic Party and were received by the National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu'azu.

They are Olowo Ajiboye – Oye II; Adeloye Adeyinka, Ikole I; Abeni Olayinka, Ado II; Fatunbi Olajide, Moba II; Olugbemi Joseph, Ikole I and Adeojo Felix Ayodele, Ekiti South-West II.

The Speaker had, in a statement, alleged that the defected members were planning to impeach him and elect a new Speaker among them.

He, thereafter, declared a month recess citing the change of government as the reason for the decision.

The PUNCH gathered on Monday that Fayose has been locked in several moves to woo more APC members to the PDP and has made many mouth-watering offers to them.

According to a member of the Assembly who craved anonymity, one of such offers is the plan to write off their car loan.

"The governor has promised to write off the car loan we obtained to appease us. He has also promised to give us better package than those offered by Fayemi," the lawmaker said.

But the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, said he was not aware of any meeting between the governor and the lawmakers.

He said, "It is not true that His Excellency met with members of the House of Assembly. If he had not met them, how did he make the offer? The governor is concerned with governance. If anyone had met them, it would be at the party level."

PUNCH