…Accuse Ondo Speaker of stalling legislative activities

…Provide your evidence – Speaker

The leadership crisis rocking the Ondo State House of Assembly has taken a fresh twist, with some lawmakers accusing Speaker, Hon. Olamide Oladiji, of presiding over an Assembly that has held only four plenary sittings in the last seven months.

The lawmakers blamed the Speaker for the infrequent sittings, arguing that the situation has slowed legislative business, weakened the Assembly’s oversight functions and fuelled growing dissatisfaction among members.

According to the lawmakers, the Assembly has struggled to effectively discharge its constitutional responsibilities because the Speaker allegedly avoided convening plenary sessions whenever tensions arose within the House.

One of the lawmakers said, “We have had only four plenary sittings since January. Ask the Speaker. We are not on recess, yet the House has hardly sat. This issue has persisted for more than three or four months.”

Another lawmaker alleged that the Speaker often delayed legislative sittings whenever disagreements emerged among members.

The lawmaker further claimed that there were occasions when the Speaker travelled outside the country without convening meetings, leaving the Assembly inactive for weeks.

“Whenever he notices there are issues, he will not call plenary. He waits until the tension has died down before calling the House to sit, sometimes after a month. That has been his pattern.

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“Sometimes he travels and no meeting is called at all. We are not on recess, yet the House remains inactive,” the lawmaker alleged.

The lawmakers also claimed that legislative activities were repeatedly disrupted towards the end of last year.

“When issues came up in November and December, we barely had meetings. Once there was a disagreement, the House effectively went quiet until members resumed much later,” they said.

The allegations have reignited debate over the constitutional requirements governing sittings of state legislatures.

A legal expert said “Section 104 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides that a State House of Assembly “shall sit for a period of not less than 181 days in a year.”

He said the provision applies to all 36 State Houses of Assembly, just as a similar requirement applies to the National Assembly.

He however, noted that the constitutional provision relates to the period during which a legislature remains in session within a legislative year and does not necessarily require 181 separate plenary sittings.

“Within a legislative session, lawmakers may undertake plenary proceedings, committee engagements, parliamentary meetings and other legislative activities in line with established parliamentary procedures and House rules.

“The provision is intended to ensure that legislatures meet regularly and effectively carry out their constitutional duties, including lawmaking, oversight of the executive and representation of constituents.

“Allegations that a legislature has failed to meet sufficiently are often assessed against both constitutional provisions and the Assembly’s internal rules governing legislative proceedings,”.

Reacting to the allegations, the spokesman of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Olatunji Fabiyi, maintained that the Assembly had continued to conduct its affairs in accordance with parliamentary procedures.

Fabiyi said parliamentary meetings form part of the Assembly’s legislative activities and disclosed that some members had met with the Speaker about four days earlier to express their concerns.

“We are doing our own. You know the system of sitting of the House. We can hold parliamentary meetings; they are part of the meetings. About four days ago, we met with the leadership of the House.

“We called the Speaker himself to that meeting and told him categorically that he was no longer enjoying the confidence of members. We advised him to resign voluntarily so that it would not have any negative impact on his political future. That was the collective decision of those who attended the meeting,” Fabiyi said.

He further explained that the Speaker is not responsible for convening parliamentary meetings, noting that the Majority leader has the authority to summon such meetings, while the Speaker presides over formal plenary sittings.

“He is not the person who calls parliamentary meetings. The Majority leader has the statutory right to call parliamentary meetings.

“It is only the formal sitting of the House that the Speaker convenes. Where he fails to convene such a sitting, once we have the required numbers, we can convene and proceed with the sitting ourselves,” he added.

However, Speaker Oladiji denied the allegations of wrongdoing and dismissed the claims, describing the accusations against him as false and politically motivated.

Responding to the allegations, the Speaker, Oladiji, dismissed the claims and challenged the lawmakers to substantiate their claims and allegations with evidence, saying their allocations are baseless.

“Let them provide the evidence. Our parliamentary meetings are regarded as statutory meetings. At times, we might not have plenary sittings, but we hold parliamentary sittings, and parliamentary sittings are as important as plenary sittings,” he said.

Oladiji maintained that the Assembly had continued to carry out its legislative responsibilities despite the alleged low number of plenary sessions, insisting that internal parliamentary meetings also formed part of the legislature’s official business.

On the allegation that the Assembly had not processed enough bills, the Speaker explained that the pace of legislative activities largely depended on the Executive, which sponsors most of the bills considered by the House.

Oladiji explained that “The Executive, in most cases, is the one that has so many bills. Most of the bills we process in the House of Assembly usually come from the Executive.

“They may want to amend an existing law or introduce a new bill for consideration. The Executive works closely with the House, and we process such bills into law.”