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Ayo Fayose
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There was panic again in Ado Ekiti
on Monday as members of the Peoples Democratic Party and supporters of Governor
Ayodele Fayose laid siege to the Ekiti State House of Assembly
complex in order to halt the resumption of the 19 All Progressives Congress
lawmakers.
Fayose had announced in a statewide
broadcast on Sunday that the lawmakers planned to take over the
assembly to commence their impeachment proceedings against him. He therefore urged transport unions,
market women and workers to rise up and protect the mandate they gave him.
The Punch report continues:
Although there were no barricades at
entry points to Ado Ekiti city as done in the previous protests,
many workers who arrived in their offices at 8am returned to their
homes out of fear.
Private and public schools in the
state capital failed to reopen for the third term academic session as a result
of the development.
The governor’s supporters and the
state PDP members who were allegedly mobilized by the caretaker chairmen of the
16 Local Government Areas in the state clustered around the assembly complex,
watching out for the APC lawmakers.
Security agencies were also seen at
the entry points frisking vehicles and passersby.
While the Fayose supporters waited
and discussed in clusters, the 25 newly elected PDP House of Assembly
lawmakers issued a statement in which they alleged that
the personal ambitions of the Speaker, Adewale Omirin, and a
Senator, Babafemi Ojudu, were responsible for the aggravation of the political
crisis in the state.
They called on the state
stakeholders, especially traditional rulers, to prevail on the two lawmakers
not to throw the state into chaos because of “their ambition to be acting
governor and governor.’’
“Whoever that is interested in the
Ekiti State Governorship position should wait till 2018,” the lawmakers-elect
said in the statement by Gboyega Aribisogan, Segun Adewumi and Adeniran
Alagbada.
But the Special Adviser on Media to
Omirin, Wole Olujobi, denied that his boss aimed to
become the acting governor of the state.
He also said that it could not have
been true that Ojudu collected money from anyone to ensure the impeachment of
Fayose in 2006.
“He (Omirin) is the Speaker of
the Assembly who must check the governor’s excesses in his flagrant
trampling on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” Olujobi
stated.
Meanwhile, the APC in the state has
praised transport union associations in the state for not joining
the Fayose supporters and PDP members.
The APC , in a statement
by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said, “We praise the
drivers and motorcycle operators for their courage and wisdom. Fayose is used
to protecting his own interest and keeping his children in safety while he
distributes guns to the children of others to foment trouble.
“The day he was first impeached in
2006, he asked his supporters to meet at Fajuyi to confront the soldiers. It
was later that his supporters discovered that the governor had
bolted to safety while his supporters were tear-gassed with several
of them wounded.”
The party explained the matter at
hand was not about partisanship but about the abuse of the 1999 Constitution
and wondered why Fayose believed he must win through violence.
It added, “He first led thugs to
sack the court and beat up a judge while court records in the Chief Judge’s
office were torn. The Chief Judge’s secretary was beaten.
“Now, he openly made a live broadcast
in the state media inciting his supporters to an act of insurrection by
disallowing the lawmakers from doing their lawful duties.
“Even during Sunday service in the
church, Fayose, to the shock of everyone, was inciting worshipers to protect
the mandate they gave him through violent resistance to the lawmakers. Why must
a governor choose violence as a religion?
“He effectively grounded the
judiciary and now it is the turn of the parliament. Nigerian democracy is on
trial and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is in chains if
Fayose can single-handedly cripple these two sacred democratic institutions
through violence and he appears winning all the way.”
The party regretted that the
governor’s media statement had created panic among parents who kept their
children at home on Monday for fear of attacks on their way to schools.
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