The Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Mr Bayo Lawal is to act as Governor of the State for the next 23 days.

This followed Governor Seyi Makinde’s formal transmission of executive power to Lawal as contained in a letter written to the state House of Assembly.

As read by the speaker of the Assembly, Honourable Adebo Ogundoyin, the Oyo governor will be embarking on vacation from Thursday, August 11 to Friday, September 2, 2022.

According to the letter, Makinde will resume office as governor on Saturday, September 3, 2022.

Makinde based his decision on the provisions of section 190 (1) of the 1999 constitution.

Meanwhile, following a petition read at the day’s plenary, the Assembly announced the suspension of the Chairperson of the Olorunsogo Local Government area, Mrs Oluwakemi Akanni and her Vice, Mr Badmus Adesoji.

The petition was signed by executive officers of the council to include its vice chairperson; secretary, Adeyemo Paul; chief of staff, Owolabi Musbau and supervisory councillors.

Similarly, another petition signed by Seriki of Igbeti land, Chief Emmanuel Adediran was also written against the chairperson by the traditional council of the local government area.

Among allegations written in the petitions were that the Olorunsogo local government chairperson unilaterally spends funds without consultation with the executive members, failed to account for security votes with traditional rulers not getting the N250, 000 meant for security for the past 13 months.

Also, Akanni was indicted for alleged lack of respect for the traditional council and poor accessibility of the citizens of the local government to the chairperson.

After announcing the suspension of the chairperson and vice, speaker of the state assembly, Honourable Ogundoyin directed the leader of the council to take over the running of the council.

Also, in another petition read on the floor of the plenary, allegations of abuse of office and misappropriation of funds have been raised against the chairman, Iwajowa local government area, Mr Jelili Adebare.

In the petition signed by Oladele Kareem, Olawale Abdullahi and others, Adebare was specifically accused of embarking on projects around his family house, denial of receipt of funds for local government projects, and sharing local government funds among certain political officials alone.

The petition demanded the Assembly to thoroughly investigate how Adebare expends funds meant for security before emptying the coffers of the local government.

In the same vein, the Assembly received a letter from councillors of Ido local government announcing the suspension of their chairman, Mr Sheriff Adeojo.

Ruling on the petitions, the speaker of the Assembly directed the House ad-hoc committee on local government led by Honourable Akintunde Olajide to investigate the two petitions and report to the Assembly.

Meanwhile, the Adhoc committee has also been mandated to receive detailed financial information of the 33 local government areas.

Specifically, the Assembly directed the chairman of the local government areas, through their respective heads of local administration, to send in their income and expenditure from January to July 2022 to the Assembly, by the next two weeks.

This came as the Assembly considered a motion by Honourable Babajide Adebayo over the complete neglect in some local government areas of rehabilitation of local roads, bridges, schools and primary health centres.

Bemoaning unsatisfactory performance as reported by various constituents across local government areas, the Assembly said the reports should cover their funds’ allocation, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), projects and programmes. (Tribune)

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