Nigeria: Lawyers, ex-lawmakers disagree over Ondo dep gov’s impeachment plot
By Zuleihat Owuiye, Mamos Nigeria
Ogunye and Femi Emodamori, and former lawmakers from Ondo State, today, disagreed over the move to impeach the embattled Deputy Governor of the state, Mr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who has been accused of alleged gross misconduct.
While Ogunye and Emodamori accused the deputy governor of attempting to stop his impeachment through an interim order, the former lawmakers warned the Assembly members against heating the polity by impeaching Aiyedatiwa.
Ogunye, who was featured on a television programme, said that Aiyedatiwa was wrong to have approached the court, when the process had not been completed.
He said: “The issue of principle here is that there is a route, under Section 188 of the Constitution, which says that ‘seven days you should receive a notice served by the Speaker on the holder of the office, be it governor or deputy governor’.
“Within 14 days, a vote is taken and, if two-third passes the matter, it goes to the Chief Judge of the state within seven days and then a panel is set up within three months and the report comes in.
“After the report comes in, if the report says no misconduct has been committed, the matter ends there. If it says misconduct is proven then the person is impeached.
“That’s the process. And so, if at the tail-end the process is not followed, the holder of the office has recourse to have him restored to power.
“The second one is the federalist principle which is very dear to me. You are a deputy governor of a state, you have a state high court, you are suing everybody in that state including the Chief Judge of that state, and you are taking them to a Federal Government court. That offends my federalist principle.”
Also throwing his weight behind Ogunye, the counsel to the House of Assembly, Femi Emodamori, argued that if the lawmakers clearly and meticulously follow Section 188 (1-9), no court, as stipulated in Section 10, has the power to intervene.
Emodamori said: ”It is only when there are pure breaches of the law that the court may intervene. Now, the deputy governor hasn’t even been served, the notice was initiated by eleven members of the House, more than one-third required, and he didn’t wait to be served.
“He’s alleging violation of his right to a fair hearing that he’s not been served. That it’s within social media even when Section 188 says he should be served within seven days and it’s not yet seven days.
“Rushing to court even before the panel is constituted is an abuse of judicial process. He doesn’t have a fundamental human right to protect at that stage. The body to hear him is the panel to be constituted by the Chief Judge. Until the body begins work, how do you complain about the violation to a fair hearing?”
On their part, the former lawmakers in the state, who addressed newsmen in Akure, urged the Ondo Assembly to preserve the sanctity and integrity of the assembly.
Speaking on behalf of the lawmakers, Abiodun Jerome said: “The present House of Assembly is less than four months old, and it’s very unfortunate that impeachment proceeding is their priority amongst the myriad of critical issues confronting our state presently.
“We want to unequivocally state here that the House must be careful not to dare the wrath of the people by heating the polity.
“The Assembly must be very careful from turning themselves into a puppet in the hands of some desperate politicians.
“It is on this note that we challenge the present Assembly not to endorse a bad precedence by going ahead with this planned impeachment of the Deputy Governor.
“As critical stakeholders in Ondo State, we consider it incumbent that we do not fold our arms and watch our political labour and those of our pathfinders washed away by the interest of a clique within our political system.”
