Barely after six days in office, the Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Gboyega Aribisogan, was on Monday impeached from office and suspended indefinitely by 17 lawmakers for blocking the passage of the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Bill.
Aribisogan was immediately replaced by the Assembly Chief Whip, Rt. Hon. Olubunmi Adelugba from Emure Constituency who was unanimously elected the new speaker by all the 17 lawmakers present at a plenary presided over by Deputy Speaker Hakeem Jamiu.
The oath of office and the oath of allegiance were subsequently administered to Mrs Adelugba, who became the first female speaker in the history of the Ekiti State House of Assembly since the return to democracy in 1999.
Thanking her colleagues for finding her worthy to be elected, the new speaker promised not to take the trust and confidence reposed in her for granted. She later adjourned sittings of the House indefinitely.
Six other lawmakers in the Assembly were also slammed with suspension for compromising the process of the election that produced Aribisogan as the speaker on November 15, among other alleged unpatriotic and unparliamentary conducts capable of threatening the peace of the state.
Aribisogan and the six erring lawmakers were subsequently barred from the vicinity of the Ekiti State House of Assembly Complex within 1.5 km radius for their acts which, according to their colleagues, offend the provisions of the House Standing Rules and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The six lawmakers suspended and barred alongside the impeached speaker are Hon. Tajudeen Akingbolu (Ekiti West 1), Hon. Tope Ogunleye (Ilejemeje), Hon. Ajibade Adeyemi (Moba 1), Hon. Adekemi Balogun (Ado 1), Hon. Yemi Ayokunle (Ekiti Southwest 1) and Hon. Adegoke Olajide (Efon).
The legislative penalties meted out to Aribisogan and his accomplices followed the consideration and adoption of the report of a six-member Adhoc Investigative Committee constituted to look into the circumstances surrounding the non-passage of the 2022 Appropriation Bill which they said could cripple governance in the state.
Jamiu who presided over the plenary until the election of Mrs Adelugba had earlier dissolved all existing principal positions and appointed Hon. Johnson Oyekola Bode-Adeoye as the new leader of Government Business while he also resuscitated the already dissolved Committee on Appropriation.
Speaking at the plenary on the terms of the punishment for Aribisogan and six others, Deputy Speaker Jamiu explained that impeached Speaker Aribisogan and six others were suspended without pay with immediate effect.
Jamiu also added that the axed lawmakers are to hand over properties of government in their possession to the clerk of the State House of Assembly and any one of them wishing to be reabsorbed must write a letter of apology to the leadership of the legislative house.