Oyo Assembly’s Suspension Of Oluokun Commendable But The Net Must Be Expanded

For the first time in about six years, Adebo Ogundoyin, Speaker, Oyo state House of Assembly gave me one reason to be able to put my chest out and say, look, that gentleman is from my Town in Eruwa.

This last Thursday, he presided over the disciplinary hearing of Sola Oluokun, suspended Chairman of Oyo East Local Government.

Oluokun, it was, who, after eating to his fill, decided to engage in a dangerous play that got his tummy ruptured. ( Ere bekun bekun).

The fellow, as Chairman of Oyo East Local Government, recorded a video of himself, half naked, showering praises on his godmother, who he fondly called ” Aduke”, ” Mummy”, before finally letting the cat out of the bag, when he mentioned the name of a former Senator and Speaker of the Oyo state House of Assembly.

He said the woman made him Chairman and also took him to ” Ilu Oyinbo”.

I did a story about the shameful episode which was released on Thursday morning and when I read in the evening that the misguided fellow has been suspended by the House of Assembly that same evening, my first reaction was to ask myself, is this really happening?

Yes. It did happen and once again, I give credit to the Oyo state House of Assembly and by extension, the Governor of Oyo state, Seyi Makinde.

I do not expect that the House of Assembly, with due respect to the members, could take such a step without the prior approval of the Governor.

Are things not getting better in Oyo state? Certainly, this step must be applauded by all.

I have read about the argument regarding whether the Oyo state House of Assembly could suspend an elected Chairman.

I think they can. If you consider the power of oversights conferred on the House by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

However, I must quickly say that the Oyo state House of Assembly, by the act of wielding the big stick on Thursday have just set a standard which they could not afford to fall below , moving forward.

I love that standard and in the light of that, I wish to present the following matters for the express scrutiny of the Oyo state House of Assembly.

By the powers conferred on the Oyo state House of Assembly, the House has oversight functions and responsibilities over every expenditures of the Oyo state Government.

Charity, they say, begins at home.

The first issue I will like the intervention of the Oyo state House of Assembly are ones that directly concerns the Speaker.

The contracts for the rehabilitations of the Eruwa New Garage/Poly/Oke Ola Road, Alayande junction/Isaba junction Road and the Roads within the Lanlate College of Education were given to Toyese Ogundoyin.

Toyese Ogundoyin is a direct simbling of the Speaker, Oyo state House of Assembly.

This contracts have been awarded since about five and four years and they have been abandoned for years.

I will like the Oyo state House of Assembly to conduct an investigation on this abandoned contracts and tell the public, exactly why, they are abandoned.

In the process of investigation, I will like the House to look at the following issues: whether Toyese Ogundoyin and or his Company possess the requisite qualifications to be awarded the contracts ab initio, how did he get the contracts, that is, did he win the contracts through a verifiable and thorough bidding process? What are his previous experiences? Did the award of the contracts not amount to an Abuse of office by the Speaker? Were the contracts awarded by the state, Local Government or are they Constituency projects by the Speaker? How much has been released and is the work so far done commensurate with the funds released?

There is something fishy about the contracts mentioned above and now that the Oyo state House of Assembly has demonstrated that It does have the capacity to perform Its functions, Its tentacles should also cover this areas.

I do not need to remind the Honourable House that the Speaker can not be a judge in his own case. Whenever such issues would be discussed, the needful has to be done and before I am misinterpreted, the needful is that the Deputy Speaker would preside over the matter because the Speaker is deeply involved.

That is standard Legislative practice anywhere in the world.

Secondly, I will like the House of Assembly to rely on Its oversight powers to investigate the contracts for the award of exercise books to a Broadcaster friend of the Governor and the #28 billion Light Up Oyo project.

Why am I calling for the intervention of the House of Assembly on this matters?

Governor Seyi Makinde himself promised to inquire into the two issues and he has not fulfilled the promises.

Concerning the Light Up Oyo, the Governor himself, through his former Commissioner for Information declared that the contract has failed in less than a year after it was delivered.

That is a big indictment. The funds involved in the above named contracts are huge.

I saw that one of the tenacious points the House of Assembly held unto in dealing with Sola Oluokun is the need to ensure accountability.

Fantastic! However, it must not and should not be limited to the hapless suspended Local Government Chairman.

The standard must apply across Board. That is when justice would be seen to have been served, not only served.

Finally, I will like the Oyo state House of Assembly to immediately commence public investigation into the expenditures of the 33 Local Governments from 2019 to date.

I also saw that the Speaker was emphatic about Local Governments financial Autonomy in rejecting the pleas by a couple of members who pleaded on behalf of Oluokun.

The expenditures of the 33 Local Governments have been enmeshed in controversies since 2019.

There has been reports of Letters of irrevocable credit signed by the Governor to perpetually tie the monthly Allocations for the 33 Local Governments to the payments of some state contractors.

There are reports of Loans taken with the monthly Allocations for the 33 Local Governments.

Developments in the 33 Local Governments have been grounded due to non release of funds by the Governor.

I do not think that Governor Makinde would have any problems ” collaborating and partnering” with the House of Assembly to embark on oversight duties over the issues raised here.

After all, he had no problems ” collaborating and partnering” with the 33 Local Governments Chairmen in Oyo state up till now and he had no problems allowing the House of Assembly to deal with Oluokun.

It is time to extend such gestures across Board.

Common! Let’s do this. Can’t we?