The embattled Speaker of the Ogun State House of Assembly, Olakunle Oluomo, has returned to his seat after spending few days in the custody of the Economic and financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Oluomo who returned to the Assembly complex earlier Friday, was welcomed by a few members of the House of Assembly and staffers of the Assembly.
An aide to the Governor of Ogun State, Olamide Lawal, posted a short video of the Speaker as he resumed offices on Friday, on his Facebook timeline.
Some staff and members of the House were seen congratulating the embattled Speaker.
Lawal later posted a picture of himself and the Speaker on his timeline saying ‘Hence, He who gets his strength from God cannot be destroyed by mischievous people.’
Meanwhile, the Speaker has indicted the former Speaker of the House and his predecessor, Suraj Adekunle and the immediate former Deputy Speaker of the House, Dare Kadiri, in his ongoing ordeal in the hand of the EFCC.
Oluomo, in a release personally signed on Friday hinted that a petition written by the former Deputy Speaker which he described as hyperbolic also reflected in the charges against him.
He said, “I maintain my innocence in the recent Economic and Financial Crimes Commission charges against me and I will want the court to decide because the hyperbolic nature of the petitions written by the impeached former Deputy Speaker, Dare Kadiri was also reflected in the charges.
“By law, I am not the Accounting Officer of the House, for emphasis, the House under my leadership operates only one bank account since 2019, through which running cost and allowances are paid directly into the bank accounts of individual Honourable members and staff of the House including the petitioner.”
He also indicted the former Speaker of the House saying two charges in the allegation brought against him bothered on the 8th assembly where Suraj was the leader.
He said, “Also, charges 10 and 11 are for the Eighth legislature before I became the Speaker.”
Suraj was the Speaker of the House while Oluomo deputized him.
Part of the allegation brought against the embattled speaker was an alleged forgery of documents belonging to the former Speaker’s Company, Ashkash Nigeria Limited.
Ashkash had written the EFCC denying issuing the receipts as presented by the Assembly as evidence to the agency.
…Why I did not honour EFCC invitation
The Former Speaker also explained why he refused the earlier invitations by the EFCC saying same violated section 36 of the 1999 constitution as amended.
He also accused the EFCC for failing to wait for the pronouncement of the court in a case instituted against the Agency before he was arrested about a week ago.
“I also like to say that the refusal to honour the initial invitation of EFCC was because of the method adopted by EFCC is against section 36 of the Constitution and we challenged it in court, this is in the public domain as it was widely reported but the EFCC refused to wait for the pronouncement in that case before taking further steps, despite having joined issues with us in court.”
The Speaker concluded saying, “I have always been disciplined and upright in my position, conducts and dealings with people, I shall continue to remain myself with truth and honour as my goal.”
