Impeachment Threat: Ogun Assembly’s Mace Stolen
September 09, 2022
The symbol of authority of the Ogun State House of Assembly (OGHA), Abeokuta, also known as, Mace, has allegedly been stolen by yet to be identified persons.
This has, however, made proceedings for the assembly practically impossible for the third consecutive time since the ordeal of the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Olakunle Oluomo, started.
It was allegedly stolen overnight.
The mace, which is the staff of authority of the state’s legislative arm, was allegedly stolen to prevent the lawmakers from achieving their aims of impeaching the embattled Speaker, Rt. Hon. Olakunle Oluomo when the House was scheduled to hold its plenary session at the assembly complex.
The botched sitting of the lawmakers on Thursday is, however, the third consecutive time when OGHA will be missing its sitting since last Thursday when its speaker, Oluomo, was arrested.
Oluomo, who is currently standing trial at a Federal High Court in Lagos State, was arrested by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) last week over allegations bordering on corruption, forgery and financial impropriety.
This will however, be the second time when Mace of the Ogun State Assembly under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Oluomo will be missing, having recorded the first one on December, 2020 but was later recovered by the Lagos Police Command at Abule Ado Area of the state at about 8.30am.
Security operatives attached to the Assembly Complex also barricaded the entrance gate of the complex and specifically prevented journalists from gaining access into the complex.
As at 2pm on Thursday, the Assembly complex, security operatives were still demanding that media practitioners must first obtain clearance from the Head of the Assembly’s media, Abiodun Jamiu Lawal, who would not pick his calls before they could be allowed into the assembly complex.
Source close to the Assembly Complex, who pleaded anonymity confided that the Mace suddenly disappeared from the complex to prevent the lawmakers, particularly the Assembly’s deputy speaker, Rt. Hon. Akeem Balogun (Ogun Waterside State Constituency), who is statutorily saddled with the responsibility of conducting the businesses of the Assembly from presiding over the businesses of the day, which included the Speaker’s Impeachment.
