The Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mr. Najeem Salaam, said
this in a statement made available to our correspondent in Osogbo on Wednesday by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Goke Butika.
Oloyede, in a petition to the House of Assembly, accused Aregbesola of financial recklessness and asked the lawmakers to impeach the governor.
The Speaker, who said earlier that the Assembly had forwarded the petition to the governor for his response, said the lawmakers could not do anything until they received the governor’s response.
Following the receipt of Aregbesola’s defence, the Speaker asked the judge to prepare to appear before an investigative committee he had set up on the matter.
The Speaker said the Assembly was now ready to investigate the allegations, while assuring the people of the state that their investigation would be a thorough one.
The statement read in parts, “State of Osun House of Assembly has expressed its readiness to address the petition sent to it by a judge of the State High Court, Justice Olamide Folahanmi Oloyede, having obtained the response of Governor Rauf Aregbesola on the matter.
“The detailed response of the state helmsman was obtained on Tuesday, compelling the parliament to set machinery in motion on the investigation of allegation of financial hiccups and her position for the preparation of impeachment article against the governor among other issues.
“The parliament would be fair and thorough in investigating all the issues raised with a view to reaching a logical end that would give all parties concerned sense of justice without fear or favour.
“I have constituted an investigative committee that will look into the petition forwarded by Justice Oloyede, and I have given the committee mandate to interact with Justice Oloyede in person.
“Justice Oloyede is in the best position to further shed light on her position as expressed. However, I assure all the parties concerned that the matter would be treated with fairness and sense of justice without fear or favour.”
Meanwhile, the Coalition of Groups for Good Governance has berated the judge for asking the Assembly to impeach Aregbesola.
The Chairman of CGGG, Waheed Adediran, said this in a statement made available to our correspondent in Osogbo.
He said, “It is unambiguous that the petition forwarded to the State of Osun House of Assembly by Justice Folahanmi Oloyede is not known to law and not capable of initiating any form of impeachment process what so ever.
“In pursuant to section 188 (1) (2) and section 1 (1) of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, the petition in question is a mere letter that does not deserve any attention.”
The group also said the governor was not guilty of financial recklessness leveled against him by the judge.
Adediran explained that the 50 per cent crash in the price of crude oil and crude oil theft during the regime of former President Goodluck Jonathan was responsible for the sharp reduction in revenue allocation to the state.
He said Aregbesola worked hard to raise the state’s internally generated revenue from N300,000,000 per month to over N1.6 billion per month, adding that the governor had done so much to develop the state.
Adediran added that Osun State, which was second to the last on the allocation ladder, ironically, had the second largest workforce in the country.
The group urged public servants and other stakeholders in the state to support Aregbesola’s administration in its efforts to transform the state into an economically viable one.
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