The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ekiti panel

  • Ekiti government blocking my efforts to panel’s report – Fayemi

    Ekiti government blocking my efforts to panel’s report – Fayemi

    The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has accused the Ekiti State government of blocking his efforts to get the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry report which barred him from holding public office for 10 years.

    Fayemi said the Governor Ayo Fayose’s administration has been frustrating his efforts to get the report more than one week after it was made public.

    He particularly accused the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Dupe Alade and the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Kolapo Kolade, of ignoring his written applications for the panel’s report.

    He contended that the government does not have any justifiable reason to block him or any citizen from accessing the panel’s report, even after it had been made public.

    The panel released the report on December 13, 2017 while the White Paper was endorsed by the State Executive Council and made available to the press on January 15.

    The panel banned Fayemi and the state former Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Oladapo Kolawole, from holding public offices for 10 years.

    It also recommended that the duo should refund over N2 billion to the state coffers.

    Speaking with journalists in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital on Tuesday, counsel to Fayemi, Chief Rafiu Balogun, said his client needed the CTC of the panel’s report to challenge the recommendations at the court of law.

    Balogun said the CTC is one of the important documents needed in the case instituted by the former governor to challenge the verdict of the seven-member jury led by Justice Silas Oyewole (retd).

     

  • Fayemi must account for N2.75bn bond cash – Ekiti panel

    Fayemi must account for N2.75bn bond cash – Ekiti panel

    Snippets of the report of the Ekiti State Judicial Commission of Inquiry raised to probe financial transactions by the former Governor Kayode Fayemi’s administration were released late on Wednesday.

    The seven-member panel submitted its report to Governor Ayo Fayose at the Executive Chambers of the Governor’s Office in Ado-Ekiti.

    The panel led by Justice Silas Oyewole (retd) in its report said Fayemi must account for the whereabouts of N2.75 billion allocated from the N25 billion bond obtained by his administration for the construction of the Ado Ekiti Ultramodern Market.

    The panel said the project was never executed.

    It also said the contractor that handled the furnishing of the Government House built by the Fayemi administration should be made to refund N324.8 million, noting that the contract should not have been more than N280 million.

    The panel said it found out that Kitwood Nigeria Limited to which the furnishing contract of over N600 million was awarded had no traceable address and that “the address on the Letter of Award is a virgin land opposite the new Central Bank along New Iyin Road, Ado-Ekiti.

    On the purchase of vehicles, the panel said “claim by Coscharis Motors that it supplied 235 and/or 250 vehicles was fraudulent and fraught with so many contradictions.

    “That Coscharis Motors supplied some vehicles outside Ekiti State especially, at Ibadan Liaison office, when Ekiti State Government does not have a Liaison office in Ibadan. In respect of this, seven vehicles were supplied outside the state and signed for by unknown persons.

    “That Coscharis Motors only supplied 219 vehicles to the Ekiti State government and that 17 Joylong Buses were supplied to the Ekiti State Government as gift but later carted away.”

    On the controversial N852.9 million State Universal Education Board (SUBEB) fund, the panel alleged that the Fayemi administration hoodwinked the federal government into paying its own matching grant by obtaining N852, 936,783.12 loan from Access Bank on November 25, 2013 without perfecting documentation in respect of the loan, thereby flouting the provisions of Section 11(2) of the UBEC Act, 2004.

  • Fayemi’s probe: Ekiti panel concludes sittings

    Fayemi’s probe: Ekiti panel concludes sittings

    The Judicial Commission of Enquiry set up by the Ekiti State government to examine the state’s financial transactions under the Kayode Fayemi administration has concluded its public sittings.

    It promised to submit its report “soon”.

    The commission’s lawyer Sunday Bamise said at its final sitting yesterday, all the witnesses it called were at the panel’s sittings except Dr. Fayemi, former Commissioner for Finance, Dapo Kolawole and CASA Consult Limited.

    Bamise urged the panel to close public hearing, having taken evidence from the witnesses.

    This, he said, would enable the panel to write its report, make appropriate recommendations and submit same to Governor Ayo Fayose, who raised the panel.

    Panel Chairman, Justice Silas Oyewole (retd.) obliged and declared the panel’s proceedings closed.

    A State High Court, presided over by Justice Adekanye Ogunmoye, last Thursday, affirmed the legality of the panel.

    It averred that Fayose had powers to run the affairs of the state and that he had exclusive rights to set up the seven-man jury without the prompting of the House of Assembly, and that he properly so acted.

    Ogunmoye, who delivered the judgment in the suit filed by Fayemi against the commission of enquiry, said Fayose acted pursuant to Section 2 (1) of the Commission Enquiry Law, Cap. C10, Laws of Ekiti State.

    He dismissed all other reliefs seeking to set aside and perpetually restrain the commission.

     

     

  • Ekiti panel rejects Fayemi’s application to stay proceedings

    Ekiti panel rejects Fayemi’s application to stay proceedings

    •Ex-governor: I’ll appeal ruling

    The Judicial Commission of Enquiry investigating the finances of Ekiti State between October 2010 and October 2014 has rejected an application by former Governor Kayode Fayemi to stay proceedings.

    The panel also refused a similar application by former Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Dapo Kolawole, that he be excused from appearing and giving evidence on the management of finances.

    Fayemi, through his counsel, Chief Rafiu Balogun, argued the application that he be excused from appearing before the panel during the pendency of three cases he filed as touching on issues before the seven-member jury.

    Fayemi’s counsel formulated 14 issues for determination while counsel to the panel, Mr. Sunday Bamise, formulated four issues for determination in countering the former governor’s application.

    Ruling on the application, the Commission Chairman, Justice Silas Oyewole, held that the cases filed by Fayemi at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja and the Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti could not stop the panel from continuing its assignment.

    The panel chairman held that the case at the FCT High Court is a libel suit Fayemi filed against Fayose’s media aide, Lere Olayinka and House of Assembly member Samuel Omotoso, who he said were sued in their private capacity.

    He also ruled that the reliefs sought by the ex-governor at the Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti, in which he sued the House of Assembly for empowering the governor to set up the panel, cannot stop its proceedings.

    Justice Oyewole said issues before the Ado-Ekiti Federal High Court were outside the terms of reference of the panel, adding: “It is unfortunate that the applicant (Fayemi) equated Ekiti State House of Assembly with the Ekiti State government.”

    The panel chairman ruled that the Constitution empowers the Assembly to issue a warrant of arrest to compel the appearance of anyone summoned, while the governor also has the power to set up the panel outside the resolution of the Assembly.

    He also held that the third suit Fayemi filed at the Ekiti State High Court to stop the panel from sitting was done after its sitting had begun.

    According to him, it is only the governor or a valid order of the court that can stop the panel from continuing with its proceedings.

    Justice Oyewole noted that Fayemi failed to secure any order to stop the panel from its assignment.

    The panel chairman described Fayemi’s application as an “abuse of the proceedings of the commission”, adding that “the application is hereby refused and the applicant is not excused from appearing before the panel”.

    In a separate ruling, the panel also rejected Kolawole’s application on the basis that it is “an abuse of its proceedings and a calculated attempt to waste the time of the commission”.

    It urged the former commissioner to appear before it to give evidence.

    But Fayemi rejected the decision.

    His lawyer said the former governor would challenge the summons in court.

    Balogun, who was not at the sitting when the ruling was delivered, said the verdict was not determined according to a settled law.

    The lawyer said he had received instructions from his clients to proceed to the High Court to have the ruling quashed.

    He said: “We are not satisfied with the ruling because it was not determined according to law. It was against the principle of settled law.

    “The decision contradicts the settled principle of law, as decided by the apex court and the Court of Appeal on the principle of subjudice and lis pendes.

    “We are setting the machinery in motion to carry out the instruction of our clients to that effect.”