Lawmakers in the Ondo State House of Assembly seem to set for a showdown with the state governor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, over his vituperation against the lawmakers on the snake invasion saga that rocked the state assembly last week.
The lawmakers who threatened to frustrate and decline passage to a proposed N30billion loan by the state governor for developmental projects in the state if the governor fails to renovate the state Assembly complex.
In an interview with journalists, the Chairman House Committee on Information, Mr. Gbenga Omole, maintained that the lawmakers were not out to blackmail the governor or government as insinuated by Akeredolu during his visit to the Assembly complex.
He said: “They want to borrow money now. I am a member of the Appropriation Committee. They want to borrow N30 billion. If they did not do what we want, we will not allow that to happen.
“It is not going to be business as usual. That is my own stand as the spokesperson of the House. Do they not repair their own offices? The truth is that they will give them small money and they will pass the budget, the one that concern them will not be addressed. We are not going to take that this time around.
“We cannot say because we are friends to the governor and not say the truth, they repair their offices. Let us expose the leadership of the House, the Speaker said money is voted for the renovation every year, but it is not backed with cash. They did not release money for repair, yet you pass their budgets.
“Out of the money, they said they want to rehabilitate the Accountant General’s office, they want to repair the Accountant General’s office, you don’t want to repair the independent arm of government. It is not going to happen. The worst is that they will not give us a second term but we will do what the people of Ondo State like.”
Speaking on the snake invasion, Omole said “the truth of the matter is that that place needs attention. The way they merged the issue of the snake with the collapsed part of the building is the issue. The termites have eaten the roof of the building.
“There was a snake invasion on Wednesday, but on Thursday when we were about to sit, we discovered termites have eaten the roof. The question is that termites did not start eating the place in the last two years. It has been the failure of the leadership of the House in the past Assembly.
“To set the record straight, we never sat on Wednesday and Thursday. Actually, we wanted to sit on Thursday, but when we came in some part of the roof have caved-in.
“I granted the interview that on Wednesday that there was a snake and we could not sit, it is not that snake chased us out of the chamber. That was what everybody wrote. Journalists have the liberty to write what they wanted to write.
“On the issue of termites, everybody knows that place needs a facelift; that is a fact that the governor knows. It is the joining of the snake with termites that embarrassed the governor.
“The governor accused us of blackmail, why is it that the past leadership of the House has not done anything about it. Every year they put renovation of the Assembly in the budget and it was not implemented. The executive brings in budget and you passed it at a place that is termite infested.”
Recall that the state governor, Akeredolu, lambasted the lawmakers over the allegation that snakes prevented them from carrying out their legislative duties, describing it as embarrassing and an attempt to ridicule and blackmail his administration.
Akeredolu who visited the Assembly complex after the report that snakes chased out lawmakers from the plenary queried the lawmakers. He said: “Did you see any green snake here? You said snake chased you out of this place and that you adjourned sine-die. How did you combine what happened here yesterday with your snake if it is not grand connivance by yourselves?
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