Fresh crisis looms in Oyo Assembly as lawmakers battle over sharing of 9 official cars

There are indications of fresh crisis between principal officers and members of the Oyo State House of Assembly over who to benefit from the delivery of nine (9) newly supplied official cars among the members.

DAILY POST reliably gathered that principal officers on Tuesday insisted on being the beneficiaries of the first set of official cars bought for the assembly members almost two years after the inauguration of the eight assembly, a situation that did not go well with floor members.

At the parliamentary caucus meeting held on Tuesday that lasted till 3pm, it was gathered that the bone of contention was who should be the beneficiaries of the vehicles.

A source at the meeting informed DAILY POST that while the principal officers insisted that they would be the first set to benefit from it, other members suggested that the beneficiaries should be among the ordinary members.

The assembly is made up of 32 members, including the Speaker, Hon. Michael Adeyemo and the Deputy, Hon. Musah Abduwash who were excluded having gotten their own official vehicles.

It was also learnt that another nagging issue causing division among the members is the presentation of the report of the Committee that investigated the allegation of the swearing in of two un-cleared local government caretaker chairmen for Irepo Local Government, Asabari Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Mr Mudasir Agbaje, and Taiwo Adeleke respectively and swapping of Mr Akeem Aransi with Mr Abiodun Oladeji for Lagelu West LCDA.

However it was gathered that Governor Abiola Ajimobi had held a closed door meeting with the lawmakers with a view to amicably resolving the perceived imbroglio between the two arms.

During the meeting, it was learnt that the governor promised to immediately release the official vehicles to the lawmakers as well as give them their parcels of land within the Government Reserved Areas (GRAs).

According to the report, the committee recommended that the Executive Arm of government should tender unreserved apology to the house for flouting the directives of the house, which is against the principle of separation of power.

It was gathered that the Speaker not satisfied with this aspect of the recommendations, made an appeal for its outright removal from the report, which did not go down well with the members of the House, especially the members of the Ethics and Privileges Committee that investigated the matter.

Our correspondent learnt that the members have now prepared for a showdown with the speaker at the plenary slated for tomorrow (Thursday) if the original report of the committee is not allowed to be presented.

But two members who our correspondent called Wednesday evening said it was not true that members were having crisis over the purchase of cars.

Speaking with DAILY POST, member representing Ogbomoso North, Hon. Olawumi Oladeji and her counterpart from Ibadan North 11, Hon. Olusegun Olaleye said the rumour was not true.

Oladeji said that “I am not aware of that.”

Olaleye in his reaction said “There is nothing like that, quote me, mention my name, there is nothing like that.