Ondo lawmakers issue impeachment notice against deputy gov

The Ondo State House of Assembly on Tuesday issued an impeachment notice against the Deputy Governor of the state, Alhaji Ali Olanusi.

The seven-count notice of impeachment issued against Olanusi was endorsed by 20 out of the 26 lawmakers in the House.

The legislators said the notice was pursuant to Section 188 of the Constitution.

The Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Jumoke Akindele, directed that the notice should be served personally on the deputy governor through his office or pasted at his residence or advertised in a national daily.

Offences the lawmakers are levelling against Olanusi range from gross misconduct to financial misappropriation and absence from official duties.

The House also alleged that the deputy governor engaged in activities that resulted in political disaffection within the Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s cabinet.

The impeachment move against Olanusi came barely three weeks after he defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress, few hours to the March 28 presidential election.

The lawmakers said Olanusi acted “to undermine the office of the governor by causing political disaffection and deliberately working at cross purposes with the governor and the executive council of the state with a view to destabilising the state government.”

They accused Olanusi of truancy and absenteeism, saying the deputy governor shunned official engagements without lawful or official authorisation on April 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 20, 2015.

The House also recalled that “on or about Wednesday April 15, 2015, Olanusi caused his security aides to shoot indiscriminately at peaceful protesters along Fiwasaiye/Oba Adesida Road in Akure, thus creating panic, breakdown of law and order, and general sense of insecurity within the state under the pretext that the said protesters disrupted his convoy.”

The lawmakers said the act was unbecoming of the holder of the high office of the deputy governor.

Olanusi was also accused of collecting, at different dates, various sums of money “for the purpose of travelling and as medical bill as follows: 2009 (N8,175,410); 2010 (N8,952,600), 2013 (N10,833,200) and 2014 (N11,328,100), when in actual fact, the said Alhaji Ali Olanusi did not travel on the said specified dates or did not travel at all and, or, did not expend the approved medical bills as appropriate, thereby unlawfully enriching himself and/or causing loss to the state government.”

The impeachment proceeding against the deputy governor commenced on Tuesday with the Majority Leader of the House, Ifedayo Akinsoyinu, moving a motion that impeachment notice be served on Olanusi.

The motion was seconded by a member of the House representing Akoko North West 2, Adeyinka Banso.

Addressing newsmen after the Tuesday sitting, Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Kunle Olujuyigbe, assured that the House would follow due process and allow the deputy governor to respond to all the allegations against him.

Source: Punch