Former members of the Ondo State House of Assembly elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday admitted that they made mistakes plotting impeachment war against former deputy governors, Ali Olanusi and Agboola Ajayi.
They however warned the incumbent lawmakers not to repeat the mistakes made by their predecessors by being involved in petty politics in the quest to impeach the deputy governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa without following the provision of the constitution.
A former Ondo State Deputy Governor, Ali Olanusi, was in April 2015 impeached by members of the state House of Assembly.
Twenty two of the 26 members of the Assembly supported the impeachment of Ali Olanusi over allegations of gross misconduct, financial misappropriation, absenteeism from official duties and causing disaffection in the state cabinet.
But in 2017, the Court of Appeal sitting in Akure, the Ondo State capital however nullified the impeachment of the former Deputy Governor
The court held that Olanusi’s impeachment in 2015 by the Ondo State House of Assembly was not done in accordance with the provisions of the law.
Olanusi’s successor, Agboola Ajayi also almost faced similar fate in 2020 as the state assembly plotted impeachment process against him.
The House however failed to made headway on removing Ajayi who was the deputy governor to Oluwarotimi Akeredolu’s first term.
Addressing newsmen in Akure, the state capital, the former lawmakers, who spoke under the auspices of the Coalition of Concerned Ex-Lawmakers, said the Ondo Assembly should rise above every reproach and distraction and avoiding making past mistakes.
Xraying the past impeachment plots by the legislative arm in Ondo state, a former lawmaker, Sunday Olajide who represented Akure South Constituency 2 in the 8th and 9th state assembly said, “If you have not gotten it right the first time, it doesn’t mean that you should continue to make such mistakes because somebody has done it in the past.
“If impeachment has taken place in the past and for one thing or the other, it was not carried out properly, for example like the one done( Olanusi’s impeachment) and upturned by the court, it doesn’t mean we should continue that way.
“I think it should even serve as a lesson for all of us. Impeachment is such an important and very serious thing that if it must be done, we should look at the constitution and we should be able to carry out whatever we are doing in line with the constitution.
“Even though it might have been done in the past and probably it didn’t go right, it doesn’t mean that we (Ondo Assembly) should follow the same line. No. We should all learn from our mistakes.”
