The Osun State House of Assemblyon Thursday, July 16, 2015 inaugurated a 7-man committee to investigate the petition seeking the impeachment of Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
Speaker of the House, Najeem Salaam, while addressing newsmen at the State House of Assembly said the committee has two weeks to come up with recommendations.
Reacting to the constitution of the committee, the Civil Societies Coalition for Emancipation of Osun State (CSCEO), who have been protesting in support of the petition rejected the committee.
Speaking via a statement issued by its Chairman, Comrade Adeniyi Sulaiman, the CSCEO questioned the sincerity of the committee, given that all seven member of the committee are all members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which the governor belongs to.
The group also gave the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) some stick, asking them to condemn the committee.
The statement read:
“The composition of the investigative panel does not reflect this assertion as all the seven members are from the ruling APC despite the fact that the assembly consists of representatives of the people from other political parties.
“Where then is the fairness in this composition? We make bold to say that the composition of the panel already betrays their intention to turn the investigation to a party affair without recourse to the position of the opposition. This is unacceptable in a democratic dispensation.
“To further show that the leadership of the Osun House of Assembly lacks the integrity and the will- power to dispassionately and justly investigate the allegations, while fielding questions from journalists at the press conference on why there was no representative of the people from the opposition in the panel, the speaker claimed that the reason is that the two opposition members of the 26 member house of assembly are first timers who lacked legislative experience.
“We believe that he must have forgotten that Hon. Akinola Adufe representing Irewole / Isokan state constituency who he included in the panel is also a first-timer in the house of assembly from the ruling party. This is a display of insincerity and lack of integrity on the part of the Speaker. We therefore urge the good people of Osun state and the opposition party to reject the panel as constituted.
“The main opposition party, PDP, once again will be failing the good people of Osun state if they remain silent on this very crucial issue. We will have no option than to belief that their palms have been greased to buy their silence and complicity with this fraudulent contraption of the leadership of the state house of assembly against the people of Osun state.
“In addition there can be no fairness in any personal interaction between members of the panel and the petitioner whose petition has been in the public domain from day one. As has already been demanded by many Civil Societies and Human Rights Groups in the state any interaction with justice Oloyede in line with the petition should be done in the open. Transparency should not be compromised in this matter of public importance.
“It is our hope that Mr. Speaker will allow common sense to prevail on this matter in which he has already shown that he is biased by virtue of his response to journalists question on the composition of the panel. We will also like to call on other political parties to lend their voices to justice, fairness and equity in this matter”.
