Fayose, APC lawmakers closed-door meeting ends in stalemate

Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, and the 19 aggrieved All Progressives Congress lawmakers of the Ekiti State House of Assembly met behind closed doors on Monday in Akure, Ondo State.

                             

The meeting which was held at Sunview Hotel, Alagbaka, had five of the APC lawmakers in attendance and lasted for over five hours.

At the meeting were the embattled Speaker, Dr. Adewale Omirin, his deputy, Tunji Orisalade, Bunmi Orilowo, Churchill Adedipe and Gbenga Odebunmi.

Also at the meeting were the Chief of staff to the Governor, Mr. Dipo Anisulowo; the Ekiti State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Owoseni Ajayi; a lawmaker-elect, Mr. Kola Oluwawole, and the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. John James.

After the meeting, Fayose told journalists, “I don’t want to answer any question, but we  are only going to make one statement and the statement is:  Today, we have met in the overall interest of our state believing that we will be able to find solution to the problem.”

When also asked to comment, Omirin said, “What the governor said was actually what we have done.”

Shortly after the meeting, the governor left while the five lawmakers continued with the meeting.

The lawmakers had, on April 30, shunned a peace meeting convened by eminent lawyer, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), to broker peace between the lawmakers and the governor in Ado Ekiti. The APC lawmakers cited insecurity as the reason for their refusal to attend the peace meeting.

However, in a statement later issued by Omirin’s Special Adviser on Media, Wole Olujobi, the APC lawmakers, who said they acceded to the governor’s request for a fence-mending meeting following his phone calls to the Speaker, insisted on a return to the status quo as of November 11, 2014, before any peace deal could be struck.

The statement said, “While the governor emphasised before the lawmakers the offer of their salaries and other entitlements, the lawmakers insisted on t‎he return to the status quo as of November 11, 2014.

“That means restoring all the principal officers to their positions and all aides of the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, including those of other principal officers should be restored to their positions.

“The lawmakers made it clear they were ready to return to their jobs and the governor should provide atmosphere for that possibility. They asked the governor to clear the House of Assembly of thugs and create conditions that would make them do their jobs without any security threats.

“T‎hey insisted that restoring the security aides of the principal officers and opening the Assembly for resumption of their legal duties should be the starting point for the restoration of peace.”‎

Olujobi said while the lawmakers made their position clear, the governor was more on payment of the lawmakers’ entitlements while promising to look into what he could do on return to the status quo.

According to the statement, Fayose revealed he might have difficulty in resolving the return to the status quo  because the matter was already in court.