‘Just Defend Allegations Against You,’ Ondo Assembly Denies Witch-Hunting Deputy Gov

By Sola Omoniyi, Lagos

The Ondo State House of Assembly has denied the accusation of witch-hunting following its impeachment move on the Deputy Governor of the state, Lucky Aiyedatiwa.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Oshati Olatunji, who spoke to Newsmen on Thursday, maintained that they are not witch-hunting the Deputy Governor, but said that he has to defend himself from allegations of misconduct levelled against him.

“There are some allegations that border on emotions, we don’t want to take it up emotionally, which by the time we finish our investigations we will be able to explain better. There are many allegations and it borders on misconduct.

“It is our duty that when you receive a petition, it is the best thing for us to look into it. We have said on several forums that we are not witch-hunting, we are just doing our job and our job is to investigate and by the time we finish the investigation, the whole world will see. We are not after witch-hunting anybody; we are after sanitising the system.

“There are about five allegations with us here that borders on misappropriation. Those were the allegations from the petition and it is left for him to defend himself. If he answers well, we are not after witch-hunting.

“The other one is about his intention to divide the executive when the governor was away and planning to impeach the governor which he at least needs to defend himself,” Olatunji said.

The impeachment move on the Deputy Governor by the House of Assembly started following the return of the Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu from his medical trip abroad.

There have been accusations from some quarters that the governor is behind the move by the state House of Assembly to impeach Aiyedatiwa, but a Senior Advocate of Nigeria Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, who was also a guest on the programme disagreed.

Adegboruwa said, “You know how politics goes in Nigeria, people just cook up all manner of allegations in respect with whatever political allegations that they have.

“I know his excellency, the governor of Ondo state as a man of courage, transparency and accountability. I am sure he is not involved in all this.

“I believe that over time, he will play his fatherly role and call all the gladiators to order and let governance take its centre stage in that state. I don’t think that this is the time for this kind of political tension.”

Olatunji said that the House has sent an invitation to the Deputy Governor to come and defend himself. According to him, he has seven days to appear before the House.