Pot calling the kettle black

•Ondo deputy governor’s impeachment is a conclave of defectors ganging up to remove another, in wilful contempt of the Constitution

The impeachment of the Ondo Deputy Governor, Alhaji Alli Olanusi, from office by the state House of Assembly, is another indication that impunity and disregard for the due process still reign in different parts of the country. It is unfortunate that those elected to make laws for order and good governance could be so contemptuous of the spirit and letters of the constitution they swore to uphold at all times.

Section 188 clearly spells out the procedure to be adopted in impeaching and removing a President, Vice President, Governor or Deputy Governor from office. It is deliberately made stiff to ensure that pettiness does not override the general interest.

Our concern here is not as much about Alhaji Olanusi, his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC), which seems to have motivated his removal and the power play in the state. We are rather at a loss over the haste with which the process was handled and the violence done to the underlying principles behind the impeachment procedure outlined in the supreme law of the country. Indeed, we are particularly concerned about whether the law makers who impeached Alhaji Olanusi themselves have the locus standi to do so, given the Supreme Court judgment that said a law maker can only defect if the political party that he belongs to is in crisis at the national level. 

What are the facts? Alhaji Olanusi was a member of the PDP, indeed the state chairman of the party, during the reign of the late Dr. Olusegun Agagu. When Dr. Olusegun Mimiko who had defected from the Ade Adefarati administration that he served as health commissioner in 2003, it was Olanusi, who received him into the PDP. Mimiko thereafter served as Secretary to the State Government under Dr. Agagu, before moving to the centre to join the Obasanjo administration.

Again, he chose to quit the PDP just before the 2007 election when, as was the case in the AD, he could not secure the governorship ticket. He joined the Labour Party with a horde of PDP leaders who were equally disaffected with Governor Agagu. Alhaji Olanusi was one of those who shifted base with Mimiko. He was Dr. Mimiko’s running mate in that election and they won. The governor did not find fulfilment in the Labour Party and, again, decided to relocate to the PDP. Olanusi joined him.

But, the music changed on March 26 when the deputy governor felt he had had enough of the PDP and switched camp to the APC. And that was the beginning of trouble for the removed deputy governor. No sooner did the governor consolidate his hold on the House of Assembly after the state elections of April 11 than he chose to effect a change of his deputy.

It is bad enough that pettiness is the cause of impeachments in the country, but it is worse that we have seen state after state how systems, processes and mechanisms are subverted for cheap personal gains at the expense of the governed. The impeachment notice was moved and passed, allegedly served; motion to set up panel moved and passed, the Chief Judge mandated to constitute the seven-member panel to investigate the seven grounds of impeachment, report submitted and removal effected — all within two weeks.

In the undue haste, the fundamental principle of fair hearing was disregarded as Alhaji Olanusi had to travel for medical check-up. Until he left the country, he denied being duly served the impeachment notice. The panel had up to three months to investigate the grounds of impeachment but chose to do so in days even without hearing for the accused. It submitted its report to the Speaker on Monday and the motion for removal was passed same day, a new deputy governor nominated, screened and sworn in same day.

It is interesting that this drama was playing out in Ondo State where a House of Representatives member had just lost his seat by the decision of the Supreme Court over defection without compliance with the constitution. Dr. Mimiko who masterminded the impeachment is a serial defector, the majority of the PDP members who acted the play joined Labour Party only last year and Labour was absolutely in no crisis then.  It was rather Mimiko’s sole decision to shift political allegiance – a case of an individual collapsing a party into another!  Where then is the moral right for the indignation at Olanusi’s act?

It is also worrisome that an Akure High Court ruling last week that the status quo ante be maintained, until the disposal of a case filed to forestall the removal, was disregarded by those who should be protecting the sanctity of state institutions.

Alhaji Olanusi should approach the courts for nullification of the apparently vexatious act of the lawmakers. All lovers of democracy have a duty to insist that the due process be followed always. And that officials of state act in good faith.

‘Mimiko who master-minded the impeachment is a serial defector, the majority of the PDP members who acted the play joined Labour Party only last year and Labour was absolutely in no crisis then’