August 22, (THEWILL) –Â The last has not been heard about the war which has been brewing in the Ondo State House of Assembly in the past two years. The seat of one of the lawmakers, Hon. Favour Tomomewo, representing IIaje II Constituency in Ondo State has been declared vacant in the house despite two court rulings.
It all started in 2020 when Tomomewo was expelled from the All Progressives Congress (APC) for unruly behavior. He was said to have formed an alliance with the former Speaker of the State Assembly, Hon. Iroju Ogundeji, during his tenure to stop the impeachment of e Deputy Governor Agboola Ajayi in 2020.
Ondo State lawmakers had attempted to impeach Ajayi after he defected from APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and later to Zenith Party where he signified interest to contest for the governorship seat. The angry lawmakers ganged up and wrote an impeachment letter against the Deputy Governor. However, things took a twist when nine lawmakers out of the 15 lawmakers seeking to impeach Ajayi backed out from the impeachment move and pitched their tentS with the embattled deputy governor.
According to the constitution, it takes two-third of the 26 members of the assembly which is 18 members to impeach a governor. Since nine lawmakers backed out, the remaining six lawmakers had no veto power to implement the impeachment process. Tomomewo was one out of the nine lawmakers who supported the speaker. After that move, other members of the APC ganged up against Tomomewo and accused her of anti -party activities and suspended her from the party. The case was taken to an Ondo State High Court who ruled in her favour and quashed the suspension placed on her.
Not satisfied, the APC lawmakers ran to the Appeal court to overrule the verdict of the High Court but the Court of Appeal also held the ruling of the High Court that Tomomewo should not be suspended from the party.
Two years after the battle started, the APC lawmakers ignored the court rulings and wrote a letter to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that Tomomewo’s seat was open to be filled by another candidate from the party.
