Tag: Ekiti PDP

Things are falling apart in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, less than a year after it won the governorship election.

The party is embroiled in a crisis as a section of the State Working (SWC) Committee removed the Chairman, Idowu Faleye, accusing him of breach of party constitution.

They elected Olatunde Olatunde as the new chairman.

The SWC said Olatunde would remain acting chairman, pending the time an emergency congress would be called to elect a substantive chairman.

The action was said to have been taken without the knowledge of Faleye’s benefactor, Governor Ayo Fayose.

Addressing reporters at a briefing yesterday, Olatunde said the change of guards was not targeted at Fayose, describing the governor as a “respected party leader”.

Olatunde also claimed that the action was not a fallout of the raging feud between Fayose and the National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, who are bickering over the party’s woeful performance at the last general elections.

Faleye, who is a former state Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), was appointed, following the elevation of his predecessor, Makanjuola Ogundipe, to the position of National Vice Chairman (Southwest) shortly after the June 21 governorship poll.

Addressing reporters in Ado Ekiti yesterday, Olatunde claimed that Faleye voluntarily resigned to rectify the anomaly noticed in his appointment .

He explained that having come from the same Ido Ekiti Ward 1 with the state youth leader, Faleye cannot continue to lay claim to the party’s chairmanship.

Olatunde revealed that the National Working Committee (NWC), led by Mu’azu, has been notified of the change.

According to him, the Mu’azu-led NWC was notified through the Southwest Zonal Executive led by Ogundipe, saying Faleye had ceased to be the party boss in Ekiti.

“Though, we have not breached any constitution by not confiding in the governor  before taking the action because going by the constitution of our party, there is a difference between governance and the party.

“The governor holds the governance but he is a PDP member under me,” he said.

But Faleye won’t give up as he maintained that he remains the party chairman.

Faleye, who also addressed a briefing in Ado Ekiti, denied the allegations of breach of party constitution and inefficiency levelled against him.

He claimed that the grouse of his opponents was the payment of six-month arrears of their honorarium totaling N11 million.

Faleye said he told them pointedly that he could not get the money without the approval of the state party leader.

He argued that it was wrong for Olatunde and his backers to have described his appointment as illegal, insisting that the party met all constitutional provisions before he was appointed.

Faleye said: “I am the only recognised chairman and whoever that said I have been removed is only deceiving himself.

“Nobody has the right to suspend me because I am a member of the National Executive Council”.

Members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly from both sides of the divide on Friday traded words following the allegation by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers that their All Progressives Congress (APC) counterparts were plotting to hold a late night sitting.

The leader of the seven-member PDP faction, Dele Olugbemi alleged that the Speaker, Adewale Omirin, led other 11 APC lawmakers to force themselves into the hallowed chambers late Thursday night to hold a sitting to destabilize the state.

But the APC lawmakers described the allegation as “wicked, untrue and baseless” saying they had resolved not to be part of any illegality as they are determined to use the rule of law to fight their battle.

They insisted that they were nowhere near the Assembly complex at 11.30 pm on Thursday night as claimed by their PDP counterparts saying: “it is only the minority legislators that are infected with the virus of illegalities”.

Olugbemi alleged that the planned forcible entry was aimed at ‘stealing’ the mace, the House’s symbol of authority to confer legitimacy on the alleged proposed sitting.

The leader of the PDP faction described the alleged attempt of the APC lawmakers as an “ignominious act that should be condemned by all stakeholders in the state”.

Olugbemi said he could not understand why the APC members allegedly chose 11.30 pm on Thursday to plan a sitting when they had the opportunity of holding a sitting in day time.

He claimed that the alleged plot to sit compelled him to order a security beef-up at the Assembly complex which continued for greater part of Friday.

But the Majority Leader of the Assembly, Churchill Adedipe, accused Olugbemi of crying wolf while there was none saying the allegation exists in the imagination of the PDP faction in the House.

 Adedipe who described the allegation as another mischief from the PDP camp said the APC members had no reason to plan such act when they had already taken their case to the court of law.

He said:“Nobody went there among our members. We won’t perpetrate illegality because we are law abiding citizens. We won’t enter the place by force. We are honorable men and would not act like evil men.

“What would we be doing in the place at night? We would ride on the back of law to get back to that Assembly,” he said.

Omirin in his reaction said the PDP members were only generating rumour to whip up public sympathy and emotion.

Reacting through his Media Adviser, Wole Olujobi, Omirin said: “Nobody was there yesterday (Thursday). It is just a strategy to get security agencies attention.”

Speaking on why there was heavy presence of armed  policemen for greater part of Friday, police spokesperson Victor Babayemi disclosed they were mobilized to the Assembly premises “on routine duty and not for any emergency”.

Babayemi said, “The policemen were there on routine duty. We have a Police outpost close to the Assembly, which is in charge of policing the area. They were there to carry out their normal duty not because of any emergency.

“We have no business about how the lawmakers conduct their business as long as there is no breakdown of law and order.”

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State are bickering over the re-assigning of the case between Governor Ayo Fayose and E-11, a state-based group, to Justice Segun Ogunyemi.

The PDP has petitioned the Chief Judge, Justice Ayodeji Daramola.

The party said the governor had lost confidence in Justice Ogunyemi’s continued handling of the case.

In the petition by the State Chairman, Idowu Faleye, addressed to Justice Daramola, PDP said it could not get a fair judgment from Justice Ogunyemi.

It said going by the previous experience with the judge, the governor and PDP, who were defendants in the case, would not get justice.

The petition reads: “We are surprised to be informed that the same judge, Justice Olusegun Ogunyemi, had resumed sitting over the same case he had voluntarily withdrawn from.

“When we probed the reason, we were informed that the National Judicial Commission (NJC) directed him to resume sitting over the case, but, our investigation at the NJC proved to the contrary.”

Faleye said the only way the party would get justice was to assign the case to another judge.

But in its response, the APC’s State Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, said it would not enhance democracy if partisan groups could freely make attempts at gagging the judiciary.

Olatunbosun said: “Whoever is aggrieved and before the judiciary must expect fair hearing. No one should be deprived of his constitutional right to seek redress.

“As a party, there is no record that we are before the court. We are not mounting pressure on the CJ. Is it that we have written a letter to the CJ? Why should we mount pressure on the CJ? The judiciary is competent to handle cases before it. If they have evidence of such, they should make it public.

“What should be uppermost in the minds of Nigerians not minding who is involved is that justice must prevail.”

EKITI State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Chief Judge Justice Ayodeji Daramola, of siding with the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Lawyers representing the APC, have called for the relocation of the Election Petition Tribunal outside Ado-Ekiti, because of insecurity.

Former Minister of Justice Chief Akinlolu Olujimi (SAN), in a letter to the President of the Court of Appeal Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa, said justice cannot be served in an atmosphere of intimidation, as witnessed during the attacks on courts   in Ado-Ekiti last week.

The Ekiti PDP  alleged that the CJ is backing a secret plan to prevent Governor-elect Ayodele Fayose, from being inaugurated on October 16.

The party, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Kola Oluwawole, said the chief judge deliberately amplified what happened in the High Court, Ado-Ekiti last week Monday and Thursday, blaming it on Fayose and shutting down courts to achieve a pre-determined political agenda.

Oluwawole, who said fracas in political cases during court proceedings were not new in the country, cited instances of the Election Tribunal sittings in Ondo State that was disrupted on March 18, 2013, when supporters of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Labour Party (LP) clashed with four persons being severely injured.

He also said on January 23, 2012, supporters of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) clashed at the premises of the governorship election petitions tribunal in Lokoja, Kogi State, with one person shot and three others injured.

The statement added: “The same also happened on January 6, 2012, when persons were injured in a commotion between the supporters of Governor Tanko Al-Makura of Nasarawa State and his predecessor, Alhaji Akwe Doma, at the Court of Appeal in Makurdi.

“In all the three instances mentioned above, courts in the states were not shut while no judge came out of his chamber to ‘warn’ the party supporters.”

 On the alleged assault on Justice John Adeyeye last Thursday, he said it was reported that the judge told Fayose, who came to attend the tribunal sitting, to warn his thugs.

“That reportedly took place at the court premises, not inside Justice Adeyeye’s chamber or court.

“Firstly, Justice Adeyeye reportedly addressed law-abiding Nigerians, who came to the court to observe proceedings as thugs. Isn’t that wrong?

“Secondly, Fayose was in the court premises, not inside any courtroom. Meaning that Justice Adeyeye came out of his chamber or court to address people who were possibly being unruly at the court.

“Now we wish to ask: Is it the duty of a judge to check unruly crowd in the court premises? Definitely no!

“Thirdly, if indeed Justice Adeyeye was assaulted by the ‘unruly crowd,’ was he assaulted because they knew he was a judge? Was Justice Adeyeye carrying identification as a judge on his head? Definitely no!

“Most importantly, who says the APC government of Dr. Kayode Fayemi could not have planted some hoodlums in the crowd and the hoodlums set by the state government were the ones who assaulted the judge?

“In Ondo, Kogi and Benue states that I mentioned above, did the chief judge of any of the state shut down the courts?

“Obviously, the Ekiti Chief Judge shut down courts for reasons other than what happened in the Ado-Ekiti High Court premises last week Monday and Thursday. Only Justice Daramola can tell Nigerians why he shut down the courts in Ekiti because even when gunshots boomed in Lokoja on January 23, 2012, the Kogi State Chief Judge did not shut the courts,” the statement claimed.

On last Monday’s incident, the PDP said neither Fayose nor the PDP as a party ordered anyone to invade the court.

It said all the efforts geared towards stopping Fayose from being inaugurated have failed “and only God knows who will get burnt by the fire ignited by those who were rejected by Ekiti people, but wanted to retain power, using the judiciary.”

The party insisted on a thorough probe of the Ekiti judicial crisis to bring those found culpable to book.

Lawyers seek tribunal’s relocation

Lawyers representing the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Ekiti governorship election petition have requested the shift of the Triunal’s sitting from Ado-Ekiti following attacks on courts last week in the state capital.

According to them, the incidents, in which Governor-elect Ayo Fayose has been indicted, have made it difficult for justice to be served without fair or favour.

In a letter of request “as a matter of urgency” written to President of the Court of Appeal  Justice  Zainab   Bulkachuwa, by Chief Akinlolu Olujimi (SAN) on behalf of himself and two other senior lawyers  Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) and Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) – all representing the petitioners — the lawyers said “the citadel of justice has been turned into a war front” given what happened and the statements credited to Fayose thereafter where he said among others that “nobody, no matter how highly-placed, would remove me cheaply.”

Olujimi after recalling how the counsel were attacked by thugs that invaded the court premises and how a judge was physically assaulted, said “judges, lawyers, witnesses and stakeholders are not safe. In such atmosphere, justice can never be done. Our commitment as professionals in the temple of justice does not require us to knowingly expose our lives to the danger of annihilation. We do not believe that the system should knowingly expose any judge, lawyer and witnesses to obvious risks.”

In the letter dated September 26, the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minster of Justice, said there is a precedent if the petition had to be moved out of Ado Ekiti. He recalled that the latest was the movement in 2001 of the Borno State Governorship Election petition to Abuja due to the security situation there.

The case is slated for hearing on October 14.