Residents of Irewolede Estate in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital, have dismissed the claim by Governor Ayodele Fayose’s media aide, Lere Olayinka, that the State High Court, sitting in Ado-Ekiti, dismissed their suit on forceful ejection order.
They said what the governor’s aide did was “mere misinformation of the public by misinterpreting the judgment that the case was dismissed.”
In a statement yesterday by the Chairman of Irewolede Residents Association, Ayo Orebe, the residents said their case against Ekiti State Housing Corporation and Ekiti State Government before Justice Bamidele Omotoso “was struck out while the counter-claim of the Housing Corporation and Ekiti State government seeking to take over and eject us and take possession of our houses was equally struck out”.
The statement added: “We approached the court to get justice and seek protection from harassment and injustice from agents of the state government on the houses we purchased on mortgage, from five to 25 years. But Governor Fayose insisted we must pay at once.
“Unfortunately, Justice Omotoso, in his wisdom, hid under technicalities by not considering the merit of our case and thus struck it out.
“As law-abiding citizens, we have taken our matter to the Court of Appeal to seek justice and protection from victimisation in the hands of Governor Fayose who, for political reasons, is bent on ejecting house owners (majority of who served under Governor Kayoed Fayemi) from their houses. He wants to take over the houses for sale to his friends, aides and cronies.”
It said the residents had filed an appeal before the Court of Appeal, and a motion for injunction, pending appeal before Justice Omotoso was also filed by their counsel, Chief Rafiu Balogun.
They are seeking an order of injunction restraining the state government and its agents from ejecting them from the houses pending the determination of the appeal.