Osun State Chairman, Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, Emmanuel Olowu has alleged that the aides of Adewale Egbedun, Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly have turned the Assembly to their personal properties.
In a petition addressed to media houses in the state, Olowu alleged that during the delivery of an official letter to the Office of the Speaker, Egbedun, his aides declined to collect the letter.
He also alleged that an aide to the Speaker assaulted him in the process.
“It should be noted that one of the aides of Mr Speaker stated even in the presence of the men of the Nigeria Police who are attached to the office of the Speaker that he would have assaulted our comrade if not for the fact that he knows him personally, which to us is a clear indication that Mr. Speaker and his aides, in their imagination has turned the Assembly to their personal property,” he said.
Olowu, who held that the act of rejection of the letters would have profound implications for Nigeria’s democracy, added that it undermined the principles of open governance and the accessibility of elected representatives by the public.
“As an organization, we are calling the attention of the media to this ugly situation and urge the media houses to investigate and report on this matter, because the people have a right to know about actions that impact the democratic fabric of their society,” he added.
Reacting to the petition, the Chief Press Secretary to the Osun Assembly Speaker, Olamide Tiamiyu, in a statement, said the allegation in its entirety was full of lies to mislead the public.
Tiamiyu also revealed that the statement exposed the sinister agenda against the person of Speaker Egbedun and his office.
“The Civil Servants working at the office of the Honourable Speaker are the same officers that worked with the former Speaker and the standard rule is that they take correspondence from visitors.
“Emmanuel Olowu’s colleague that came on Tuesday, 19th December, 2023, was said to have come to the House around 5:00 pm and the officer who received him, politely told him to bring it the next working day with a counsel that he should correct the errors in the letter.
“Yesterday, being Wednesday, 20th December, 2023, Emmanuel came with the letter without correcting the conspicuous error in it and it was taken from him by the most senior officer in that office (a woman) without any noise. After all, that won’t be the first time Osun CDHR will bring an error-laden letter to the House.”
He insisted that the title of the letter was misleading as the House of Assembly has never debated on any bill that has to do with a retirement age of judges.
