The State Executive Council met on Thursday in Akure, the state capital, under the direction of Deputy Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, following months of fighting between the legislative and executive branches of government in Ondo State.
The excos’ meeting occurred after months of political wrangling between the deputy governor and Governor Rotimi Akeredolu’s loyalists.
The crisis was occasioned by the absence of the governor, who has been out of the state for months due to ill health.
Last Friday, President Bola Tinubu summoned the warring factions to a meeting in Abuja where it was agreed that the deputy governor should continue to perform his duties as deputy governor.
In a related development, the Ondo State House of Assembly and its Speaker has withdrawn its appeal filed before the Court of Appeal, Abuja, against the ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which stopped the planned impeachment of Aiyedatiwa.
The Ondo State House of Assembly and its Speaker had challenged the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, Abuja to handle the matter and appealed against the court’s ruling halting the planned impeachment of the deputy governor.
At Thursday’s proceedings, counsel for the Speaker and the Assembly, Remi Olatobura, told the three-member panel of Justices of the appellate court that he has the instructions of his clients to withdraw the appeal.
The senior lawyer told the court that parties in the matter have found a political solution to their problems and have signed an agreement to withdraw the appeal.
According to Olatubora, the appeal is being withdrawn in the interest of peace and, as part of the agreement reached by the parties.
Respondents in the appeal confirmed that they were served with the notice of withdrawal adding that, they were not objecting to the notice of withdrawal.
Justice Haruna Tsammani, who led the three-member panel, subsequently dismissed the appeal, having been withdrawn by the appellants.
The appeal filed on October 3 by the Ondo Assembly and its Speaker is against the orders made ex-parte by Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja on September 26 restraining the Ondo State Governor, its Chief Judge, the House of Assembly, its Speaker and others from proceeding with their planned impeachment of the Deputy Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa pending the determination of a pending motion on notice for interlocutory injunctions.
