The Speaker of the Ondo State House of Assembly, Hon Olamide Adesanmi Oladiji, has described the lawmakers calling for his impeachment as those against the administration of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa.

Saturday Telegraph had earlier reported that twelve lawmakers passed a vote of no confidence on Oladiji and called for his impeachment for alleged gross misconduct and corruption. But 14 lawmakers passed a vote of confidence on the Speaker and described the planned impeachment as dead on arrival.

However, speaking with reporters in his official residence on Saturday, Oladiji said the agitation by 12 lawmakers calling for his impeachment is a misplaced priority, declaring that the State Assembly cannot be frustrated from amending and passing the re-ordered 2025 State Appropriation Act.

The Speaker said that not attending to the amendment of the budget as it was being demanded by his aggrieved legislators would ground the government of Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa.

He noted that the majority of the 26 Lawmakers are fully with him in supporting Aiyedatiwa’s administration to deliver on his mandate, assuring that the Assembly under his leadership has the support of Governor Aiyedatiwa.

The Speaker, who was flanked by the Deputy Speaker, Olalade Gbegudu; the Chairman, House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Oluwole Ogunmolasuyi, as well as the ILAJE-2 lawmaker, Fayemi-Obayelu Olawumi, pointed out that he is not worried about the Impeachment threat by a few members against him.

He said he would always ensure that the Assembly discharges its Constitutional responsibilities without unnecessary politics ahead of the 2027 general elections.

On the alleged diversion of N50million, Oladiji affirmed that he does not deal with the House money or account, which he has been very transparent about.

Oladiji said he has been piloting the affairs of the Assembly in line with the Rules and Standing Orders of the State House of Assembly.

His words “We have a standing order in the House of Assembly, like we have a way of relating with the Executive, like it says that these honourable members that have passed a vote of no confidence on me and the leadership of the House, they have not been coming to the House for their legislative assignments.

“As I am talking to you now, the majority of them are outside the country, and what really happened was that, according to them, they said they have some demands or requests from His Excellency, that is, the Governor of the State.

“And we have the opinion that if at all we have a request, or if at all we have any demand from His Excellency or the executive, we should not tie it with our legislative assignments, which are the reordering, or what we call the supplementary budgets.

“But they think that at least we want to use the passage of that supplementary (re-ordered) budget to drive home their request, of which the 14 (lawmakers) of us said that we are part of this government, if at all we want to make requests, we should do it in a mature way, but not by frustrating the activities of the government and yesterday, we went ahead, what we really did, it is not even supplementary budget, it is a kind of reordering.

“So we, at least the 14 of us, are strongly together and we are strongly together and we have the backup of the Excellency, the Governor of the state, because what we are doing is not personal. It’s not personal,” the Speaker said.

Oladiji vowed that the Assembly would continue to support Governor Aiyedatiwa to deliver dividends of democracy for the people of the state.