Nigeria Content Online

Nine of the lawmakers rooting for the
impeachment of the speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Olawale
Atilola, at the weekend, petitioned President Goodluck Jonathan to
intervene in the crisis rocking the state legislature to forestall
bloodletting.

Other senior government officials
equally petitioned over the invasion of the state house of Assembly
last Tuesday are: the senate president David Mark, speaker of the House
of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, inspector-general of Police,
Ogbonna Onovo, and the director-general of the State Security Services
(SSS).

Thuggery and intimidation

Miffed by the level of desecration that
occurred at the chambers of the state legislature on the fateful day as
hoodlums from the state chapter of the National Union of Road Transport
Workers (NURTW) unleashed terror on some lawmakers, as well as caused
pandemonium at the premises of the state House of Assembly complex, the
petitioners are asking the relevant authorities to come to the rescue
of the state and preserve the sanctity of its legislative house.

Specifically, Samuel Ademola Adejumobi
(majority-leader); Nafiu Lamidi Baale (deputy-chief whip); Mohammed
Inakoju (chairman, Parliamentary Caucus); Taoreed Abiola, Kazeem
Ayilara, Bamidele Ajibola, Tijani Ademola, Kayode Animashaun, and
Michael Okunlade, who jointly signed the petition wanted full
investigation to the incident and bring all connected to it to book
without further delay. The aggrieved lawmakers particularly called on
the president, and heads of the petitioned security agencies to effect
immediate arrest of the state NURTW chairman, Lateef Salako (a.k.a.
Eleweomo) and his deputy, Mukaila Lamidi (a.k.a. Auxiliary), who led
thugs to the chambers and assaulted some members of the house, stripped
three others naked and injured two others.

Recalling how they had earlier in the
day approached the state police commissioner, Baba Adisa Bolanta, on
the need to beef up security around the chambers to prevent the crisis,
the petitioners said they had got information beforehand that the
speaker had instructed the thugs to “deal with us on sighting us in the
premises of the house.”

Political backing for thugs

The lawmakers, who wanted the speaker
removed over sundry allegations of incompetence and high-handedness,
were suspended same day by the speaker and 15 others members of the 32
member-house. They alleged that despite the assurance on their live
after the earlier report, the policemen deployed by the CP to maintain
law and order around the house, looked the other way when they were
being attacked and chased away by thugs on the order of the speaker.

Accompanied with pictorial evidences,
the three-page petition equally alleged that some lawmakers, who are in
support of the speaker, including Messrs Lekan Ganiyu, Mathew Abioye
and Idowu Akanbi, as well as the state’s deputy governor, Taofeek
Arapaja, the secretary to state government, Olayiwola Olakojo, some
serving commissioners and local government council chairmen, directed
the weapon-wielding thugs to deal with the petitioners mercilessly.

The disgruntled lawmakers said they had
moved out of the state since the attack for personal safety, adding
that the mentioned hoodlums and others like one Sarafa (a.k.a. Oye
Olorun) and Sola Layiwola “are the usual thugs that have been
terrorizing the political elites in Ibadan such as Lekan Balogun and
Alhaji Akinbola of recent.”

Wondering why the police would continue to allow the like of
Elewe-Omo and Auxiliary to continue roaming the state with guns and
other dangerous weapons, the petitioners said, “all efforts to make the
commissioner of police, Alhaji Adisa Bolanta to arrest these thugs have
proved abortive, these thugs now have serious police coverage which is
not safe for the peace of Oyo State.”