No fewer than 24 members of the Oyo State House of Assembly, have signed a petition against the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Engineer Rauf Olaniyan.

According to the petition which was read during plenary, Wednesday, the lawmakers alleged the Deputy Governor of Gross misconduct, abuse of office, financial recklessness, abandonment of office and official duty and insubordination and other offences.

The impeachment move may not be unconnected with the recent defection of the Deputy Governor to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Reacting after the petition was read by the Clerk of the House, Yetunde Awe, the Speaker of the House, Debo Ogundoyin, said the petition meets the two-third requirements of the law to initiate the impeachment process.

Section 188 of the 1999 constitution as emended provided for the process of impeaching a governor and a deputy governor, and only one-third is required to sign the notice in writing, is presented to the Speaker of the House of Assembly.

The Speaker, in obedience to the provision, added that the House would give the Deputy Governor a seven-day period to respond to the allegations, adding that failure to do so can lead to the commencement of impeachment move.

Section 188(3) empowers the House to resolve either to investigate the allegation or not, regardless of whether the person so alleged respond to the allegations or not.

The window of response, according to the House, takes immediate effect and to lapse on Wednesday June 22.

The petition was signed by the PDP lawmakers.

The petition titled “Petition And Notice of Allegations of the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Engineer Rauf Olaniyan” reads in parts.

“Consequent upon listed below, we the under listed elected Honourable members of the 9th assembly hereby allege the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, His Excellency Eng. Rauf Olaniyan with the following allegations:

“Gross misconduct, Abuse of office, Financial recklessness, Abandonment of office, official duty, insubordination and other offences.

“This is in accordance to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended in 2011. Section 188.”

The lawmakers and constituencies that signed the petition include: Fadeyi Muhammed (Ona Ara), Onaolapo Sanjo (Ogbomosho South), Babalola Olasunkanmi (Egbeda), Adebisi Yussuf (Ibadan Southwest I), Okedoyin Julius (Saki West) and Adebayo Babajide (Ibadan North II).

Others are Kehinde Olatunde (Akinyele II), Olajide Akintunde (Lagelu), Mustapha Akeem (Kajola), Popoola Ademola (Ibadan South East II), Owolabi Olusola (Ibadan North East II), Olagoke Olamide (Ibadan North East I), Olayanji Kazeem (Irepo/Olorunsogo), Ojedokun Peter (Ibarapa North/Centre).

Others include Gbadamosi Saminu (Saki East/Atisbo), Mabaje Adekunle (Iddo), Oluwafowokanmi Oluwafemi (Ibadan Southwest II), Akeem Adedibu (Iwajowa), Fatokun Ayo (Akinyele I), Rasak Ademola (Ibadan South East I), Obadara Akeem (Ibadan North West), Oyekunle Fola (Ibadan North I), Adetunji Francis (Oluyole).

According to section 188(9), two-third majority would be required for the final impeachment of the Deputy Governor, which in the instance of the Oyio State House of Assembly, is 22.