The Ekiti State House of Assembly, on Tuesday, did not discuss a request by the state governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, to screen commissioner nominees, saying it was not included in Tuesday’s order paper.
The assembly, also at its sitting on Tuesday, failed to deliberate on a motion seeking members’ approval for the constitution of local government caretaker committees’ chairmen and members as also sought by Governor Fayose.
Chairman of the assembly’s Committee on Legal Matters and Local Government Affairs, Mr Adedeji Odu, while explaining the decision, drew attention of other members to a case instituted by 35 local council development areas (LCDAs) caretaker chairmen.
According to him, the former chairmen had instituted the case in an Ado Ekiti high court seeking the court’s interpretation of certain aspects of the law regarding their constitution and tenure.
Odu cited Order 54(5) of the standing order of the assembly, which, he said, forbade the assembly from deliberating on a matter pending in a law court.
He, therefore, said the matter regarding local government in the state be set aside until the court decided on the matter. The Speaker, Dr Adewale Omirin, had earlier read three letters written to the assembly by Governor Fayose in which he expressed the requests.
The governor, in his letters, had sought the assembly’s approval of the state to participate in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN)N220 billion Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund.
Other requests were: the approval of three commissioner nominees, who are: Mr Owoseni Ajayi as Attorney-General, Mr Kayode Oso as Commissioner for Transport and Chief Toyin Ojo as Commissioner for Finance while the last request bordered on constitution of local government areas (LGAs) transition committees.
The assembly, however, approved the request by Governor Fayose to access the state’s share of a N220 billion Central Bank fund for micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) development.
The assembly, at its sitting on Tuesday, unanimously approved that the state government accessed its own N2 billion SMEs development fund made available by the apex bank, with members of the assembly contending that the fund would improve “every area of the state’s economy and also improve the standard of living of the people of the state.”
The deposed 35 LCDAs chairmen, as complainants, had sued the Ekiti State governor while the state’s Attorney-General, Speaker, Ekiti State House of Assembly and Ekiti State House of Assembly were joined as defendants.
Meanwhile, a former member of the House of Representatives and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senatorial aspirant, Mr Duro Faseyi, has denied that the state governor, Mr Ayò Fayose, wrote and read out a list of candidates for the party, saying “other leaders and aspirants of the party except Senator Ayò Arise, are satisfied with the party’s congresses.”
Faseyi, who addressed newsmen in his Iludun home in Ilejemeje Local Government Area of the state on Tuesday, in reaction to Senator Arise’s claims, said the congresses in Ekiti North that caused the angry reaction of Senator Arise was “free and fair and there was no reading of any list anywhere.”
Faseyi, who served two terms in the House of Representatives, said “Fayose never hand-picked any candidate. In fact, Arise is not the only aspirant in the state. Why has he been the only one that is complaining about the congresses?
