Lawmakers of the Ondo State House of Assembly and Governor Rotimi Akeredolu are having a fight over this story of a snake dropping in the legislative chamber during plenary.

Last week, the lawmakers told the media that the legislative chamber is in such deplorable and decaying state, snakes have been dropping from ceilings and sending them running for their lives.

Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Mr Gbenga Omole, told Punch newspaper that: “On Wednesday, when we were about to enter into plenary, a big snake ran out of the chamber, which disrupted our sitting, and we had to hurriedly leave the chamber. We were about to sit again today (Thursday) when the ceiling caved in directly where Mr Speaker was sitting; we were agitated and when we looked around, we saw the damage that termites had done to most of the wood work in the chamber.”

As a result of the snake invasion, the lawmakers announced, they were going to embark on a vacation until the assembly complex is given a face-lift.

Call it a protest recess and you'd be darn right.

“When I said we are going on recess, we will continue to come to our offices but sitting in that chamber is what is not going to happen. We have written to Mr. Governor for him to know what is happening here,” Omole had added.

A week later, Gov Akeredolu is informing the media that the lawmakers lied about the snake invasion. 

The governor who visited the Ondo State House of Assembly unannounced to see things for himself, says the story of snakes interrupting legislative business in Ondo is pure fiction and blackmail from the lawmakers.

“All I have come to do is to verify exactly what happened and I have seen that there’s an attempt to blackmail the state and the government won’t take it”, Akeredolu vows.

“I was given the fact and I wanted to be sure that the Speaker and most of the principal officers are here and have heard from them for us to know what exactly happened and they have told us that no snake fell here yesterday and day before, they were not sitting when the ceiling came down, they only met the ceiling that came down.

“It was reported that they were sitting. No. All the pictures they put all there are fake. So how do they (media) come about their story? So there’s an attempt to blackmail the government and I don’t believe that is the best approach.

“This (legislature ) is an arm of government and they have their votes and the ones they are entitled to is the ones we give them.

“This place is termite infested and certainly the termites have been dwelling here for several years.

“We just spent two years and there is no way termite infestation in less than two years can cause such destruction.

“Something is wrong, this place has not been maintained. Members of the house have always been here, what have they done about maintenance of this place? If they have not been concerned about this place, we all have to sit down and work things out.”

Now, the lawmakers are threatening not to approve the governor’s request to borrow N30billion for capital projects, for daring to call them liars.

House spokesperson, Omole, was quoted in The Vanguard as saying: “They (the executive) want to borrow money now. I am a member of the Appropriation Committee. 

“They want to borrow N30billion. If they did not do what we want, we will not allow that to happen. Out of the money, they said they want to rehabilitate Accountant General’s office, you want to repair the Accountant General’s office, you don’t want to repair the independent arm of government. 

“It is not going to happen. The worst is that they will not give us second term but we will do what the people of Ondo State like.

“The truth of the matter is that that place needs attention. The way they merged the issue of snake with the collapsed part of the building is the issue. The termites have eaten the roof of the building. 

“To set the record straight, we never sat on Wednesday and Thursday. Actually, we wanted to sit on Thursday, but when we came in some part of the roof had caved-in.

“I granted the interview that on Wednesday that there was a snake and we could not sit, it is not that snake chased us out of the chamber. That was what everybody wrote. Journalists have liberty to write what they wanted to write. 

“On the issue of termite, everybody knows that place needs a face-lift; that is a fact that the governor knows. It is the joining of snake with termite that embarrassed the governor. 

“The governor accused us of blackmail, why is it that the past leadership of the House has not done anything about it? 

“Every year they put renovation of the Assembly in the budget and it was not implemented. The executive brings in budget and you passed it. The place where the budget is passed is termite infested.”

At issue here is the renovation of the Ondo State House of Assembly complex which the governor maintains should be bankrolled by the legislative arm of government from their annual budgetary allocation.

However, the legislature in Ondo State is waiting for the executive arm of government led by the governor, to fix the place.

That meins… 

Who would have thought that thousands of years after ruining the relationship between God and man, snakes would still be up to this kinda stuff?