By Dayo Johnson
SEVEN of the 10 opposition lawmakers in the Ondo State House of Assembly who have been boycotting legislative proceedings in the past two months in protest of the impeachment of the former Speaker, Taofiq Abdusalam have resumed following threat to declare their seats vacant by the new leadership of the Assembly.

But Vanguard reliably learnt that the lawmakers, all of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, backed out following the release of N20million constituency project allowances to each of the 18 members by the state government and they do not want to miss out.

Their decision to resume which is causing disaffection within the PDP leadership in the state was according to investigation not to the knowledge of the Executive of the PDP in the state.

Also, some of the lawmakers confessed that they were broke following their action to stay away from the Assembly that long, as all their entitlements were withheld.

The three others including the Speaker, Taofiq Abdusalam, his erstwhile Deputy, Mayowa Akinfolarin and Thompson Akikase are on suspension for allegedly refusing to hand over property of the Assembly after they were ousted and for other parliamentary offences.

But the duo of the Speaker and his Deputy vowed that they would pursue their illegal impeachment to a logical conclusion and would never recognize the new leadership of the Assembly because the impeachment exercise failed to follow due and constitutional process.

Atikase on his part said he would not resume and that his purported suspension was baseless and unconstitutional.

The lawmakers include Yemi Tadema, Asake Olubintan, Niyi Adebusuyi, Adesuroju Henry, Fatai Adams, Obagbemi Oladunjoye and Kunle Agunbiade.

Some other PDP lawmakers have either backed out earlier or decamped to the ruling Labour Party and they include the new Speaker, Samuel Adesina.

Investigation by Vanguard showed that the new leadership of the Assembly sent words to the absentee colleagues of their intention to invoke the constitution of declaring vacant their seats if they fail to resume after about two months.

After several meetings, the 10 members informed the Chairman of the PDP in the state, Dr Tayo Dairo but he reportedly asked them to agree and give him a feedback before they resume back.

But, the lawmakers did not report back to the Chairman before they went back to the House after they learnt that the N20million has been released through the Ministry of Community Development and Cooperative Services which would supervise the projects.

Some of the lawmakers that attended yesterday’s proceedings said their resumption was a collective decision and for the overall interest of their constituencies.

Yemi Tedama told newsmen that they had to resume after consultations with the people they represented at their individual constituencies.

He added that all the members also met and they agreed that they should go back to the Assembly to help in moving the state forward.