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Nigeria: Ogun MPs Move to Impeach Daniel
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Daily Trust (Abuja)
9 July 2008
Posted to the web 9 July 2008
Olumide Bajulaiye
Lagos
Twenty out of the 24 members of Ogun State House of Assembly decided yesterday to set in motion the process for the impeachment of Governor Gbenga Daniel and his removal from office, Daily Trust learnt in Lagos yesterday. Four of the lawmakers, including Mr. Tolu Bankole and Chief Salmon Adeleke, refused to associate themselves with the moves, Daily Trust also learnt.
One of members who attended the meeting told our correspondent that the twenty rebel members met on Sunday night at a hotel located on the outskirts of Abeokuta, where signatures were collected for the impeachment notice.
The four members who are said to be loyal to Governor Daniel did not attend the meeting.
According to our sources, soon after the legislators finished their meeting, they all left for their various constituencies to hide, allegedly for fear of assassination.
Their decision to flee, a source said, followed the attempt at the weekend on the life of their Speaker, Mr. Tunji Egbetokun.
When our correspondent spoke to Speaker Egbetokun on telephone last night, he refused to confirm or deny the impeachment moves. He however said 19 of his colleagues and himself had fled Abeokuta out of fear for their lives.
"We have left Abeokuta for our constituencies. We left in fear for our lives. Abeokuta is no longer safe for us and we don't intend to return until it is safe," he said.
A source close to the members said they were not sure who was next on the assas
sins' hit list. "Before those gunmen eventually stormed the residence of the Speaker, they had been trailing one of the assembly members, Hon. Akeem Salami, but they didn't succeed.
So, when he saw the same vehicle and men that had been trailing him at the quarters and when the vehicle was searched, guns and bullets were recovered," a source said.
Giving more insight into the problems between the legislators and the executive, Egbetokun said Daniel had been troubled since the House effected a change of leadership, adding that the governor called for negotiation to resolve the impasse but the legislators turned down his request.
"On Wednesday last week, he called us for a meeting but we did not go. Later, he sent his chief of staff, Yomi Majekodunmi to meet me. The meeting was fixed for my official quarters. Majekodunmi came in two cars; one containing six people and another with three persons and himself. It was while he was talking to me that my security aides saw some of his aides bringing out three pump action rifles and ammunition. The security aides quickly raised an alarm and the men were arrested".
Since the leadership of the house was changed last May, the hitherto peaceful state run by the PDP was thrown into confusion, from allegations of assassination attempt on the Speaker to allegations that the governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, was poisoned.
The Assembly members who distanced themselves from the impeachment Moves said yesterday that there was no crisis between the house and the governor to warrant his impeachment. According to them, the recent development was a mere political game, which they said will soon be resolved.
In another development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun East Senatorial District has resolved to recall its representatives in the Ogun State House of Assembly for betraying the confidence reposed in them by the people who voted them into office.
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Prominent party leaders from the district who spoke one after the other during a solidarity visit to Governor Gbenga Daniel at his private residence in Sagamu, also threatened to curse the lawmakers "for allowing themselves to be used by desperate politicians jostling for the 2011 gubernatorial race to disrupt the peace of the party."
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| Copyright © 2008 Daily Trust. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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