Posted by From AKEEB ALARAPE, Ibadan on
House of Representatives Speaker, Hon Dimeji Bankole, Sunday, held a secret meeting with controversial Ibadan politician, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu and prominent Islamic leader, the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Azeez Arisekola-Alao.
House of Representatives Speaker, Hon Dimeji Bankole, Sunday, held a secret meeting with controversial Ibadan politician, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu and prominent Islamic leader, the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Azeez Arisekola-Alao.
For about two hours that the meeting lasted, no journalist was allowed to enter the sprawling residence of Arisekola and neither Arisekola, nor Adedibu offered to speak to newsmen about the meeting. The Speaker himself was evasive when approached for comment on his meeting with the two personalities.
He equally shunned all entreaties that he should speak on the 2008 budget yet to be passed by the House under his leadership.
'I only came to see my father (Arisekola). Don't let us talk about budget," Bankole told anxious newsmen who were hell bent on getting a gist of the secret meeting.
The Speaker had earlier been billed for a meeting with Arisekola last Friday but the meeting had to be called off at the last minute when it was learnt that the Speaker was at a function with Vice President Jonathan Goodluck in Bayelsa State.
Yesterday, the Speaker had sneaked into Ibadan without the usual fanfare and was already in Arisekola's house before Adedibu got there, accompanied by some of his close aides.
Prayers were offered for Bankole and the nation by some Islamic clerics, who were busy reciting the Holy Quran after which Arisekola took the Speaker on inspection of his vast compound.