By Joseph Onyewkwere
Monday, October 10, 2005

Adebisi omoyeni is the new deputy governor of Ekiti State. He succeeds Abiodun Aluko who was impeached and removed from office, September 27, by the state house of assembly. Omoyeni was the executive director of Wema Bank Plc. He was sworn in October 5, a day after the house of assembly cleared him.

Aluko has had a running battle with the state governor, Ayo Fayose. The State House of Assembly found Aluko guilty on three of the 16 charges levelled against him. He was alleged to have caused "division, apathy and disunity among members of Ekiti State House of Assembly, organising some members and asking them to recruit others to support him against constituted authority."

The second charge against him was "that the deputy governor falsely accused honourable members in the presence of PDP national chairman among others, of receiving a bribe of N2 million each from the governor to impeach him, which has brought the integrity and reputation of the honourable members into disrepute." And lastly, "that the deputy governor had severally stated that he was prepared to pull down the government of Ekiti if his position is threatened."

Based on these charges, Aluko was removed with 22 votes against two in a legislative session that had all the 26 members of the house in attendance.

Leaders of the State House of Assembly said they were left with no other option except impeachment after their efforts to reconcile the deputy governor with his boss had failed.

Reacting to his impeachment, Aluko said neither the impeachment nor the decision of the panel came to him as a surprise "in view of the fact that I have always alerted the public to the fact that Fayose had bribed 19 out of the 26 members of the house to get me removed." The former deputy governor said that the public is yet to hear the last of the matter.