Senator Ademola Adeleke, Governor of Osun State is reportedly planning to install his preferred member-elect, Prince Adewale Egbedun as Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly.
Recall that on Saturday, March 11, 2023, the eligible voters of Osun flocked to the polls in big numbers to cast their votes for their favourite candidates for the assembly seats.
25 of the 26 seats were won by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while the All Progressives Congress (APC) only succeeded in winning the Boripe/Boluwaduro seat.
Four ranking members of the 25 newly elected assembly members—Adewumi Adeyemi, Hon. Tajudeen Adeyemi, Hon. Babajide Kofoworola, and Hon. Olaide Ajibola—have had their profiles previously published by WITHIN NIGERIA.
Recent developments have showed that Governor Ademola Adeleke is interested in installing a fresh member as Speaker of the state assembly and intends to abandon four ranking members despite evenly distributed across the three senatorial districts in the state.
According to dependable sources who spoke with WITHIN NIGERIA, Senator Ademola Adeleke met with a number of members-elect and gave them instructions to follow party’s choice and help his favorite member-elect succeed as speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly.
The installation of the governor’s preferred member-elect, however, may be hampered by Section 4a of Part III of the house standing rules, which states that “A Member-elect shall propose, addressing the Clerk, a ranking Member-elect from the Majority Party that such Member-elect do take, “Do take the Chair of the House as Speaker of the House of Assembly,” provided such a nomination shall be seconded by another Member-elect.
In an effort to overturn the Standing Orders of the House, which only allow ranking members to be elected as speaker of the house, two members-elect, Oyewusi Akinyode Abidemi of Ife North State Constituency and Lawal Bamidele Rasheed of Osogbo State Constituency, have filed a case before the Osogbo Judicial Division of the High Court of Justice.
The Osun State House of Assembly, the Speaker of the Assembly, and the Clerk of the Assembly were identified as the first, second, and third respondents in the case when WITHIN NIGERIA viewed the court papers submitted by the pair who are purportedly working for Adeleke’s favored member-elect.
The two plaintiffs are asking the court to declare provision 4a of Part III, which only allows ranking members of the House to be elected Speaker, unconstitutional and void, and to invalidate that specific provision of the House standing orders.
This would offer first-time members of the 8th Assembly the chance to run for speaker of the house, which would be a blatant deviation from legislative procedure and against the House of Assembly Standing Rules’ explicit prohibitions.
When this reporter entered the name of the Governor’s preferred member-elect into search engines to access information about him with the intention of sharing it with the public and letting them know more about him than just as a member-elect, it only displayed details about the 2023 elections, in which he was declared the victor of the Odo-Otin State Constituency election. He has no information online concerning his personal or business life.