NO SECURITY YET IN OGUN ASSEMBLY
- Deputy Speaker Remmy Hassan 
As the legislative and the executive of Ogun State crisis still linger, the security in the state has been described as a none satisfactory one by the Deputy Speaker of the state house of the assembly in an interview recently with some journalist he speak on the crisis rocking the state PDP, LEADERSHIP Ayodele Samuel wrote.
Q: How would you assess the legislatives function for the past 2 years most especially during the crisis period?
A: legislature is quit an intriguing exercise and I will say Ogun State parliament is not in any way different from the usual intrigues that goes with public legislatives. The only different is the way ours is done for some time now and that has made some level of focus from the media, populace and the entire world to beam their satilight on us and that has actually stood us up too at all time on the show so far to me and the majority of my colleague.
Q: How do the legislators in the state then conduct their legislative assignment?
A: Our style is not different from what our constitution has said so far but there is illegality committed in an issue but we have settled that by the technical committee. Section 39 sub-section 1b 3 of the local government law specifically state that after the suspension of the chairman, vice or even the council, the commission of enquiry should be set up. It is that commission of enquiry that will determine how far the suspended persons can either be invited or excuse for the offences that were alleged initially. If they have been found not guilty, that section of the law said they should be re-instate and where they have been found guilty, the governor has the right to pronounce another three months suspension at this stage, it is now the caretaker committee that can be in charge while the house of Assembly is notified of the resolution to call for another election but in this case as soon as the suspension has been pronounced, no commission of enquiry was put in place and a caretaker committee was set up, that is an illegality by all standard because whatever is against the law is illegal and that is why we took the bull by the horn in the house to say get it right now or we look at other options available to us to ensure that it is gotten right at all cost so, the house took that decision via a resolution meanwhile, I should let you know that resolution in broad-spectrum may be advisory if you look at it but where it has to do with the matters of law, they may have advisory on the surface but there is element of compulsory in it because failure to obey the law, you are opening another window of constitutional process that a point in time, the house may have no other option than to proceed with every available constitutional option to ensure that things are done properly.
Q: The Executive has said the legislatures are painting them black, what can you say about?
A: When you talk about painting people black, there is an extent to which I will disagree with you because there is freedom of speech, people can say what they like or want but there is also limitation to such freedom where the law does not permit you to commit libel or slander and to that extend if there is anything that has been said concerning the house that is not right the house will not hesitate to take up an action in the law court. There is nothing we have said about the executive that we cannot stand by someone has also gone to court to challenge us and we still hold on to such thing because it is the truth and is always constant. I was telling one of my friend on facebook one day that if what you are saying is true even if you are called upon years after to repeat it you don’t have to remember what you said then because you will still say the truth and it will not in any way diver from what you have said earlier so on the strength of that I will not in any way subscribe to the of anybody painting anybody black but where there are issues that bother us on getting things right, if that amount to someone alleging that they ‘ve been painted black then is quite unfortunate but like I said, everything that we are standing for is about legality, is about constitutionality, is about due process, is about getting right.
Q: What is the security of the member of the house of the Assembly like now?
A: It was not too satisfactory but in the last six weeks I must confess there has been a great improvement because we can now see some level of commitment from the security agencies, state security service, the Nigerian police, even other security agency like CID, the NSA or what have you, there has been a great improvement but it can always be better so we still hope that it get better than it is now because security challenges are not put to test until there have been a reach of it, that is when you can really access how much of readiness the security arrangement is. If it has not been tested you cannot confidently say it can stand the test of time but I hope that even if any bridge comes I believe that the respective security agencies will take the necessary action.
Q: What can you say about the case in court with the Executive
A: When you are drag to court, the matter is before the court there is a limit to how you are allowed to speak on it but for every litigation that has been instituted by the state government we have representation in the court and they are arguing it out and at the end of the day, it is the judiciary that has the right to interpret the law and will state the right position of the law. We are not losing sleep over any of these cases because we are acting within the boundary of the law.
Q: So how is the cordial relationship between the legislatives and the party?
A: Unfortunately some of our leaders believed that they just must pleased somebody and so even when they see what is right they can’t take a stand to say this is where we are, and to that extend the party has not particularly achieved much in the area of reconciliation because the Yoruba has a proverb that said a child complained of hunger and you put food on the table and you said eat then you raised a big stick waiting for the child to bend down and eat so that you can beat the child with the stick, of course when the child see all of those scenario he is not going to readily go for that food because is more like a trap that you are setting for him, that is the scenario here but that is not withstanding, the national working committee of the party has tried so much and I believe they ‘ve made quite a lot of progress, we are just waiting for them to take the decisive action on some off the complains that is before them. I guess the Ekiti scenario make them not to really concentrate much on the Ogun issue but now that Ekiti is over I believe the matter of Ogun state will be revisited and I trust eminent Nigerian who are occupying positions in our National issue committee, they will do justice to this and put all of this unfortunate scenario behind us. Every challenge in the life of man is testimony so we believe this is a state, it will come and it has come already, definitely it will be put behind us some day.
Q: Six years of PDP government in Ogun state, how will you describe this?
A: So far not bad but it can be better, not bad because whatever we called success in the first tenure is almost been rubbished by the scenario we have found ourselves now and there has to be some element of consolidation to guarantee that we really can make all of what we called the success of the yester-years that can stand the test of time. It takes one day to destroy the success of 100 years and getting to the top may be certainly a task but it is even more tasking and more difficult to remain on top than to get there and so we manage to get to the top but somehow we are getting challenges by the task to remained there and success without successor whether you believe it or not is failure and to that extend I will hold all stakeholders in this government to do everything humanly possible to guarantee that we don’t rubbish all of the success that we have had in the past, somehow I think we are biting more than we can chew and we are even struggling to do more than we can struggle but not withstanding is a call for us to re-assess ourselves so that we will not make a mess of whatever we call success hitherto.
Q: Do you think the scorch between the state government and his legislatives is not farfetched from the 2011 governanitorial election?
A: A lot of people ascribed it to 2011 and at the same time a lot of people also ascribed it to positioning for political offices and what have you but for me as a person and the speaker of the house of assembly of Ogun State that I know, I don’t think that forms any of the reasons behind our action, it is not unlikely that those who are scheming for the 2011 election may in the course of this struggle key into the whole thing so that they can get their own agenda driven home, that is the business of those who have taken that option but for us in this house I don’t think that is the reason why we are agitating because agitation is part of legislation, legislators are natural agitators and where we sees that things are not going right the way they should, we will speak out so if those who are fixed government, those who are propagandist, those who are position and office seekers are trying to position themselves for 2011 by using the present administration of the house of the assembly as the vehicle to drive home their agenda it quit unfortunate but for us, we are doing what we think and believe is right and we will continue to do all of this until the situation gets better and we can beat our chest and say good, we ‘ve found it at last.
As the legislative and the executive of Ogun State crisis still linger, the security in the state has been described as a none satisfactory one by the Deputy Speaker of the state house of the assembly in an interview recently with some journalist he speak on the crisis rocking the state PDP, LEADERSHIP Ayodele Samuel wrote.
Q: How would you assess the legislatives function for the past 2 years most especially during the crisis period?
A: legislature is quit an intriguing exercise and I will say Ogun State parliament is not in any way different from the usual intrigues that goes with public legislatives. The only different is the way ours is done for some time now and that has made some level of focus from the media, populace and the entire world to beam their satilight on us and that has actually stood us up too at all time on the show so far to me and the majority of my colleague.
Q: How do the legislators in the state then conduct their legislative assignment?
A: Our style is not different from what our constitution has said so far but there is illegality committed in an issue but we have settled that by the technical committee. Section 39 sub-section 1b 3 of the local government law specifically state that after the suspension of the chairman, vice or even the council, the commission of enquiry should be set up. It is that commission of enquiry that will determine how far the suspended persons can either be invited or excuse for the offences that were alleged initially. If they have been found not guilty, that section of the law said they should be re-instate and where they have been found guilty, the governor has the right to pronounce another three months suspension at this stage, it is now the caretaker committee that can be in charge while the house of Assembly is notified of the resolution to call for another election but in this case as soon as the suspension has been pronounced, no commission of enquiry was put in place and a caretaker committee was set up, that is an illegality by all standard because whatever is against the law is illegal and that is why we took the bull by the horn in the house to say get it right now or we look at other options available to us to ensure that it is gotten right at all cost so, the house took that decision via a resolution meanwhile, I should let you know that resolution in broad-spectrum may be advisory if you look at it but where it has to do with the matters of law, they may have advisory on the surface but there is element of compulsory in it because failure to obey the law, you are opening another window of constitutional process that a point in time, the house may have no other option than to proceed with every available constitutional option to ensure that things are done properly.
Q: The Executive has said the legislatures are painting them black, what can you say about?
A: When you talk about painting people black, there is an extent to which I will disagree with you because there is freedom of speech, people can say what they like or want but there is also limitation to such freedom where the law does not permit you to commit libel or slander and to that extend if there is anything that has been said concerning the house that is not right the house will not hesitate to take up an action in the law court. There is nothing we have said about the executive that we cannot stand by someone has also gone to court to challenge us and we still hold on to such thing because it is the truth and is always constant. I was telling one of my friend on facebook one day that if what you are saying is true even if you are called upon years after to repeat it you don’t have to remember what you said then because you will still say the truth and it will not in any way diver from what you have said earlier so on the strength of that I will not in any way subscribe to the of anybody painting anybody black but where there are issues that bother us on getting things right, if that amount to someone alleging that they ‘ve been painted black then is quite unfortunate but like I said, everything that we are standing for is about legality, is about constitutionality, is about due process, is about getting right.
Q: What is the security of the member of the house of the Assembly like now?
A: It was not too satisfactory but in the last six weeks I must confess there has been a great improvement because we can now see some level of commitment from the security agencies, state security service, the Nigerian police, even other security agency like CID, the NSA or what have you, there has been a great improvement but it can always be better so we still hope that it get better than it is now because security challenges are not put to test until there have been a reach of it, that is when you can really access how much of readiness the security arrangement is. If it has not been tested you cannot confidently say it can stand the test of time but I hope that even if any bridge comes I believe that the respective security agencies will take the necessary action.
Q: What can you say about the case in court with the Executive
A: When you are drag to court, the matter is before the court there is a limit to how you are allowed to speak on it but for every litigation that has been instituted by the state government we have representation in the court and they are arguing it out and at the end of the day, it is the judiciary that has the right to interpret the law and will state the right position of the law. We are not losing sleep over any of these cases because we are acting within the boundary of the law.
Q: So how is the cordial relationship between the legislatives and the party?
A: Unfortunately some of our leaders believed that they just must pleased somebody and so even when they see what is right they can’t take a stand to say this is where we are, and to that extend the party has not particularly achieved much in the area of reconciliation because the Yoruba has a proverb that said a child complained of hunger and you put food on the table and you said eat then you raised a big stick waiting for the child to bend down and eat so that you can beat the child with the stick, of course when the child see all of those scenario he is not going to readily go for that food because is more like a trap that you are setting for him, that is the scenario here but that is not withstanding, the national working committee of the party has tried so much and I believe they ‘ve made quite a lot of progress, we are just waiting for them to take the decisive action on some off the complains that is before them. I guess the Ekiti scenario make them not to really concentrate much on the Ogun issue but now that Ekiti is over I believe the matter of Ogun state will be revisited and I trust eminent Nigerian who are occupying positions in our National issue committee, they will do justice to this and put all of this unfortunate scenario behind us. Every challenge in the life of man is testimony so we believe this is a state, it will come and it has come already, definitely it will be put behind us some day.
Q: Six years of PDP government in Ogun state, how will you describe this?
A: So far not bad but it can be better, not bad because whatever we called success in the first tenure is almost been rubbished by the scenario we have found ourselves now and there has to be some element of consolidation to guarantee that we really can make all of what we called the success of the yester-years that can stand the test of time. It takes one day to destroy the success of 100 years and getting to the top may be certainly a task but it is even more tasking and more difficult to remain on top than to get there and so we manage to get to the top but somehow we are getting challenges by the task to remained there and success without successor whether you believe it or not is failure and to that extend I will hold all stakeholders in this government to do everything humanly possible to guarantee that we don’t rubbish all of the success that we have had in the past, somehow I think we are biting more than we can chew and we are even struggling to do more than we can struggle but not withstanding is a call for us to re-assess ourselves so that we will not make a mess of whatever we call success hitherto.
Q: Do you think the scorch between the state government and his legislatives is not farfetched from the 2011 governanitorial election?
A: A lot of people ascribed it to 2011 and at the same time a lot of people also ascribed it to positioning for political offices and what have you but for me as a person and the speaker of the house of assembly of Ogun State that I know, I don’t think that forms any of the reasons behind our action, it is not unlikely that those who are scheming for the 2011 election may in the course of this struggle key into the whole thing so that they can get their own agenda driven home, that is the business of those who have taken that option but for us in this house I don’t think that is the reason why we are agitating because agitation is part of legislation, legislators are natural agitators and where we sees that things are not going right the way they should, we will speak out so if those who are fixed government, those who are propagandist, those who are position and office seekers are trying to position themselves for 2011 by using the present administration of the house of the assembly as the vehicle to drive home their agenda it quit unfortunate but for us, we are doing what we think and believe is right and we will continue to do all of this until the situation gets better and we can beat our chest and say good, we ‘ve found it at last.
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