All is not well between Governor Seyi Makinde and members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, dominated Oyo State House of Assembly over the suspension of 13 of the 68 local government and local council development areas, LCDAs, bosses.
Particularly, he is not happy with speaker Adebo Ogundoyin and the 26 PDP members in the house.
Calls made by the speaker to Makinde were not answered, sources told OYOINSIGHT.COM.
“He was infuriated with them. He was caught unawares. He expressed displeasure with the actions, that he was indirectly slighted. He said he should be resting after the efforts he put in to curtail the EndSARS agitation in the state, adding that if what happened in Lagos had happened in Oyo State, a state of emergency might have been declared. He had explained that suspending them is like indicting him indirectly,” said one of the sources.
Another source added that “the governor is not even used to picking the speaker’s call. He picks his calls when he feels like.”
Asked what efforts the governor has done to see to the reinstatement of the suspended council bosses, the source promised to get back to OYOINSIGHT.COM.
Recently, Ogundoyin, who has been allowing the executive to have its ways since he was made speaker, was said to have recently turned down bid by Makinde to seek another N2 billion agricultural loan. This newspaper understands that there have been public outcry, especially from the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, over the borrowing spree by Makinde. As at the last check, the state has sought approval to borrow close to N150 billion in 18 months.
To quickly curtail the seeming difference between the governor and members of the assembly, the leadership of the ruling PDP met the speaker and other members of the assembly.
It was learnt that the suspended council chairmen may be reinstated on Thursday after the scheduled meeting with all 68 caretaker chairmen by the PDP leadership on Wednesday.
OYOINSIGHT.COM had reported how the assembly suspended council boss indefinitely due to “non-compliance to the resolution of the House on submission of status of earth moving equipment in their respective domains to the House as requested.”
The affected areas include: Akinyele East LCDA, Ido LG, Oluyole LG, Ibadan North East LG, Lagelu West LCDA, Soro LCDA, Ogbomosho Central LCDA, Ogbomosho South LCDA, Ajorosun LCDA, Ibarapa North West LCDA, Itesiwaju LG, Oyo East LG, and Oyo South East LCDA.
But less than 24 hours after, the suspended chairmen returned to their duty posts.
It was later learnt that there was communication gap between the assembly and the affected chairmen. Some of them claimed they submitted their papers.
But after an exclusive report by OYOINSIGHT.COM about the return of suspended the council chairmen, Hon. Qozeem Olayanju, who chairs the house committee on information and media explained that the suspension of the chairmen was still intact.
At the meeting with the PDP working committee, the speaker was said to have agreed to lift the suspension.
