Posted by By BOLU-OLU ESHO, Ado-Ekiti on
Ekiti State House of Assembly on Tuesday retrieved its mace from the police, which was handed over to the command for safe keeping in the heat of a crisis in the House a fortnight ago.
…As House retrieves mace from police
Ekiti State House of Assembly on Tuesday retrieved its mace from the police, which was handed over to the command for safe keeping in the heat of a crisis in the House a fortnight ago.
The mace, which is the symbol of authority of the House, was handed over to the Speaker of the House, Femi Bamisile, by the State Police Commissioner, Yomi Onasile, after the Speaker informed him that the crisis that led to the handing over of the mace to the command had been resolved.
According to Bamisile, the PDP and AC lawmakers had 'reasoned on the need to move the state forward and enhance the work of the legislature," adding that the police could be relied on in time of crisis as unbiased arbiter due to its fair role during the last crisis in the House.
Onasile, however, assured the legislators of the unflinching support of the police to ensure democracy is not scuttled in the state and in the country at large.
Meanwhile, the matter brought to court by the 13 AC lawmakers in the House challenging the amendment made by the immediate past state legislature to Chapter 2, Rule 4 of the House Standing Rule to guide the first day of its sitting and election of Speaker and his deputy respectively for the third assembly, which produced Bamisile as the Speaker, hit the rocks last Friday as the court quashed the amendment.
This has generated a lot of controversies between PDP and AC in the state over the interpretation of the ruling.
According to the judgment read by Justice Oluwafemi Akeju and made available to newsmen by the state's Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Gboyega Oyewole, 'I find it reasonable and just to declare that the amendment of Chapter 2, Rule 4 of the Standing Orders of Ekiti State House of Assembly by inclusion of the ruling party as in Exhibit B is unconstitutional.
'I, however, find no ground for the grant of a declaration that the election of the fourth respondent (Femi Bamisile) as Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, as unconstitutional, and that relief is accordingly refused."
There were speculations that motion for the impeachment of the Speaker may be moved at the first sitting of the House since the mace was handed over to the police over a crisis in which the Speaker was alleged to have shot two members of AC during a protest over the constitution of the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) in preparation for the council election in the state.
Investigations showed that the Speaker had been making frantic consultations in order to scale the impeachment hurdle.
However, 26 House Committees dissolved by Bamisile in the wake of the crisis would be reconstituted when the House reconvenes.