One of the lawmakers in the Ondo State House of Assembly, Hon Rasheed Elegbeleye, who was locked out of plenary Thursday has warned that the incident should not happen again.
Hon Elegbeleye representing Akoko North East and Festus Akingbaso representing Idanre constituencies were seen in a viral video asking security personnel at the Assembly to open the gate for them.
They alleged in the video that they were prevented from entering the premises on the orders of Speaker Bamidele Oleyelogun.
Both lawmakers are members of the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
Elegbeleye who spoke about the incident in a telephone chat said he was yet to understand why they were shut out.
He said they were not part of the lawmakers that were suspended but were part of the nine lawmakers that refused to sign impeachment notice of the Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi.
He said, “We were invited by the parliamentary secretary, for the plenary session but on getting to the gate of the Assembly it was locked and the gatemen ran away. We were surprised to see this, after all, we are not suspended, and even those suspended have been reinstated by the court.
“So we called the speaker he did not pick, so we went back to our houses and on our way back the Speaker called us back pretending to be unaware of our locking out, but we did not return to the House.
“This thing will not happen again. Shutting me out is shutting out 180,000 members of my constituency.”
Spokesman of the Assembly, Hon Gbenga Omole, said the two lawmakers were mischievous.
Omole insisted that no lawmaker was locked out of the Assembly complex.
He said, “These lazy lawmakers are aware we are going on recess today and they just wanted to make some noise as usual. Four days ago they claimed thugs prevented them. Today they said they were locked out
“In the video, you can hear that they received the notice to attend Plenary. So if they are officially informed and invited how can they be locked out again, is that not contradictory?”
The Nation