Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dr Adewale Omirin, has voiced concerns over incessant blackmail and intimidation of the Assembly by the state government, saying that Governor Ayodele Fayose’s reactions to the refusal by the All Progressives Congress (APC) members to dump their party for PDP are going beyond approved standards of modern governance.

A statement by the Speaker’s Special Adviser on Media, Wole Olujobi, said the latest allegation of demanding N135 million for the screening of Governor Ayodele Fayose’s Commissioner-nominees was a propaganda taken too far and went against decency.

Omirin, who said he would not have reacted if not for the public that would be deceived, expressed worry over media reports casting the House of Assembly as a stumbling block to Fayose’s bid to constitute his cabinet, saying that the reports in the media on the nominees were misleading.

Stressing that the House will not be distracted from its record of integrity in making quality laws for Ekiti people, the Speaker explained: “The standard practice is to present the list of the nominees in the plenary while the nominees will follow with the submission of their credentials. They will be screened before confirmation.

“The governor sent three nominees on Monday and the list was read in the Parliament that day. Since it was a public document, we read the letter second day in the plenary. Nobody submitted any credential. We don’t know the nominees. They have not submitted their credentials for the appropriate committees to screen them. It is surprising that the governor expects the House to confirm the nominees as sent. This is strange in parliamentary conduct.”

Omirin regretted that the governor responded by freezing the bank accounts of the House of Assembly, saying one arm of government cannot close down the activities of the other.

“How can you elevate intimidation and blackmail to an art of governance? The Chief Judge was blackmailed that he took bribes of N20million to stall hearing on local council development areas case and another alleged N200million to reassign the E-Eleven’s perjury case to Justice Olusegun Ogunyemi to return guilty verdict on the governor. After the judiciary had been blackmailed to submission, it is now the turn of the parliament to be brought to its knees by blackmailing members and freezing the accounts of the House as if the House is a department in the Governor’s Office,” the Speaker lamented.

The Speaker said the House will meet over reckless use of the state media to blackmail the members of the House, even as he added that the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission will be put on notice on the use of the state media to haunt the opposition.