Aribisogan’s Impeachment Irreversible, Ekiti Assembly Insists

The Ekiti State house of assembly has insisted on the impeachment of Gboyega Aribisogan, the former speaker, saying that the decision cannot be reversed.

The assembly said this in reaction to a statement from seven senior advocates of Nigeria (SAN) condemning the impeachment of the former speaker.

Responding to the SANs’ request on Thursday, the Ekiti house of assembly said there was no breach in the constitution concerning Aribisogan’s impeachment.

Adeoye Aribasoye, the assembly’s new spokesman, said the SANs were taking a biased decision without hearing both sides, adding that Adelugba would retain her position as the new speaker.

“The attention of the Ekiti state house of assembly has been drawn to a letter circulating on the social media written by a combination of Senior Advocates of Nigeria,” the statement reads.

“The letter is about the concern of the legal luminaries led by Aare Afe Babalola about the recent change of leadership in the Ekiti state house of assembly, leading to the impeachment of Rt. Hon Gboyega Aribisogan, who was replaced with Rt. Hon. Olubunmi Adelugba.

“We recognise the right of the legal luminaries, as stakeholders in Ekiti state and we respect their opinions and advice, but that is where it ends.

We wish to let the reading public know that members of Ekiti state house of assembly feel a sense of injustice by the one-sided opinion and biased intervention of the legal luminaries, who are also elderstatemen.

“The principle of justice all over the world is that all sides to a conflict must be heard and it is only then that justice can be seen to have been done.

“We, however, wish to remind our legal luminaries that when a serious infraction of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was committed during the PDP administration of Gov. Ayodele Fayose where seven members, impeached the then speaker, Adewale Omirin, we didn’t see a convergence of legal luminaries condemning the action.

“This same Aribisogan was equally suspended by the fifth assembly during the tenure of Gov. Fayose, but there was no whimper from our legal luminaries.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Rt. Hon. Olubunmi Adelugba remains the validly elected speaker of the Ekiti state house of assembly and she enjoys the support of overwhelming majority of the honourable members, party leadership and the government of Ekiti state.

“Therefore, the advice of the legal luminaries that Rt. Hon. Olubunmi Adelugba, who was duly elected by 17 members should stop parading herself as the speaker of the Ekiti state house of assembly, is unwarranted and we believe this is based on wrong information by the impeached speaker.

“Mrs Adelugba has presided over parliamentaries and plenaries, with majority of members present. She has announced appointment of new principal officers and she has constituted all committees of the house.”