BY TOPE FAYEHUN, Akure
In spite of the reinstatement order of the court, the suspended members of the Ondo State House of Assembly were on Thursday barred from entering into the premises of the Assembly complex.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Akure had on Wednesday upheld the judgement of the state High Court which ordered the Assembly to reinstate the embattled lawmakers and paid them all their entitlements.
But the three lawmakers , the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Iroju Ogundeji, Hon. Favour Tomomewo and Hon. Wale Williams, were allegedly stopped by the security men at the gate of the Assembly on the order from the Speaker of the Assembly , Rt.Hon.Bamidele Oloyeloogun, on their way to resume their legislative duties.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the Speaker allegedly ordered that none of the suspended but reinstated by Court lawmakers should be allowed into the Assembly premises.
The situation caused a mild drama at the main entrance of the Ondo State House of Assembly for several hours.
The affected lawmakers who were members of the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC), were earlier suspended by the leadership of the House over alleged gross misconduct .
They were however reinstated by the courts both the High Court and the Appeal Court.
Reacting to the development, the Deputy Speaker, Ogundeji, said despite having a court judgement, the Assembly leadership still barred them from entering the Assembly complex to perform their legislative duties.
Ogundeji noted that the leadership of the Assembly, by their act, was involved in contempt of the court as it ordered the security of the Assembly to bar them.
According to him, ” Yesterday (Wednesday), the appellate court ruled that the motion brought before it concerning our suspension was frivolous and ordered that we should be reinstated to do our legislative duties immediately without hindrance, that is why we were here but on getting here ( Assembly) we saw that everywhere was locked and we were not allowed to enter.”
In a swift reaction the Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Mr Gbenga Omole said the House had not gotten a copy of the judgment, saying the suspended lawmakers’ coming to the House without the copy of the judgement was mischievous and embarrassing.
“As i am speaking with you, we only read the judgment on social media, we have not got the hard copy of the judgment. When they were coming they failed to bring the copy of the judgment along. But because they are mischievous, that is why they didn’t bring the copy of judgment along, ” Omole explained .
