by Kolapo Olapoju

The Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin, has reacted to his supposed impeachment by PDP lawmakers, describing as “the greatest joke of the year.”

Seven Ekiti lawmakers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had on Thursday, 20 November, elected Honourable Dele Olugbemi as the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly.

The lawmakers held a sitting to elect the speaker and other principal officers while 19 lawmakers belonging to the All Progressives Congress, APC, were in Lagos, for a press conference.

Omirin described as absurd that seven PDP members of the House, could impeach him when according to the law, only a two-third majority could remove a speaker, which would require at least 18 members of the Assembly to remove him, since the Ekiti Assembly had 26 members.

Omirin reacted to the impeachment by addressing a press conference alongside other Ekiti All Progressives Congress lawmakers, at an hotel in Lagos on Thursday, 20 November.

He stated: “My purported impeachment by the seven PDP members is the greatest joke of the year. I was elected on June 6, 2011 by 25 members and I can only be removed from that position by 18 members, which is the two-third majority.”

“That means 17-and-a-half honourable members cannot impeach me. So, whatever they are saying is a figment of their own imagination. And the sitting they had today (Thursday) is null and void because they are just seven.”

“So they could not even form a quorum in the first instance so how can a sitting that could not even form a quorum, remove the Speaker? So they are just jokers of the century. I still remain the Speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly.”

Omirin added that himself and other members of the state Assembly were willing to work with Fayose in the overall interest of the state.

Kolapo Olapoju