Tag: Ekiti

A member of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Musa Arogundade, is in fresh trouble for allegedly procuring a ‘fraudulent’ court judgment from an Abuja Federal High Court to emerge as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the April 11 polls.

A contestant in the PDP Assembly primary, Toyin Obayemi, has dragged Arogundade to a Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti seeking the nullification of his election as the lawmaker representing Ado Constituency 1.

Joined as defendants in suit are the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); Odunayo Talabi, (2nd), who was declared winner of the primary; PDP and Arogundade.

Obayemi in his originating summons averred that Arogundade who did not participate in the Assembly primary election in which he served as agent to Talabi, “suddenly became a candidate at the election.”

The plaintiff further claimed that the first defendant (Arogundade) was substituted with Talabi after the general election had been concluded.

Obayemi further averred that although Talabi went to court to challenge the fraudulent replacement of his name with that of his agent but he (Talabi) was threatened to withdraw his case against Arogundade and he (Talabi) was later appointed as Special Assistant to the Governor on Works.

At the hearing of the case on Friday, the presiding judge, Justice Taiwo Taiwo, adjourned to May 17 for adoption of written addresses when all processes would have been exchanged among parties.

Speaking with reporters after the court rose, counsel to 2nd and 4th defendants, Bimpe Olatemiju, maintained that Talabi was duly substituted with Arogundade.

Olatemiju insisted that Arogundade participated in the primary contrary to the claim of Obayemi. Olatemiju advised Obayemi to wait for the opportunity of the next election to run for the seat again.

But Obayemi’s counsel, Olayinka Sokoya, insisted that the process that produced Arogundade as a lawmaker was “patently fraudulent” and aided by what he called “judicial rascality” perpetrated at an Abuja Federal High Court to claim the PDP Assembly ticket.

Sokoya said: “We have video evidence to prove that he (Arogundade) was an agent to the 3rd Respondent (Talabi). How can somebody who is an agent become a candidate in the same election? This is for the court to prove.

“We have documents, video tapes and pictures and by the time we oblige the court, the people will know what really transpired. It’s like judicial rascality and political rascality and we are challenging it.

“Arogundade signed the primary result sheet as a party agent, we will never allow this illegality to stand.”

In a related development, an interest group, the Fountain Alliance, has petitioned the Department of State Services (DSS) to investigate the alleged roles played by Arogundade, a Senior Advocate, Ahmed Raji; former Ekiti PDP Legal Adviser, Kolapo Kolade and Ekiti PDP Chairman, Idowu Faleye in the primary and the injunction secured in favour of the lawmaker.

In the space of a week, the governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose, and former secretary of the state’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Tope Aluko, took Nigerians on a rollercoaster that is unexampled and unprecedented in these parts. No state, by this column’s reckoning, is capable of that magnitude of folly, and no individual that magnitude of foible. But Mr. Fayose and Dr. Aluko took the country to the dizzying heights of reconciliation and political rapprochement, incredible but salutary, and then furiously rushed them a day later down the precipitous slopes of disappointment. Dr. Aluko had in February made startling allegations of electoral and financial malfeasance against Mr. Fayose, dragging in, in the process, a number of senior military officers and top politicians. The allegations were believed credible enough to warrant national and institutional (military) attention. In turn, the governor hit back feverishly but unsuccessfully, plotting the arrest and neutralisation of the grouchy Dr. Aluko. No one thought a reconciliation was possible, given the weight and intensity of the accusations.

Barely two months after the highly public and bitter falling out, the country was stunned to hear that the two politicians met in Lagos and, arms in glove, demonstrated to gawking reporters how reconciliation, Ekiti-style, was executed. Mr. Fayose gave no indication who initiated the reconciliation. All he did, as media photographers snapped pictures on that gloomy night, was speak condescendingly of the flustered Dr. Aluko whom he described as his ‘boy’. At that point, noted a few perceptive reporters, it seemed Mr. Fayose contrived the media coverage of the peace meeting unknown to Dr. Aluko.

The man thought to have brokered the peace meeting, a former Speaker of the Ekiti House of Assembly, Dele Olugbemi, beamed with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. He had a job to do to bring peace to Ekiti, and he had achieved it, he enthused. But reporters also noticed he spoke with a pained countenance, as if he was pregnant with news he could not bring to birth. He was to undergo a C-section a few days later to his own relief and everyone’s satisfaction.

The man at the centre of the hoopla, Dr. Aluko, acted and spoke like a cornered dog. His account was garbled, and his voice shook, a clear departure from the combative and eloquent tone with which he demolished Mr. Fayose’s pretentiousness in February. He told reporters he was anxious to bring peace to Ekiti and move the state forward. But his conscience appeared troubled. The reconciliation, he said to a reporter’s question, was not induced by a desire to secure political advantage. Media men were too shocked by the drama playing out before them to determine who was lying and who was not, or whether the drama itself was real. Their puzzle would be answered barely two days later when the peace deal collapsed in a spectacular heap of bad faith.

What forewarned a quizzical public that something was amiss in the whole drama was the intransigence of Mr. Fayose’s media aide, Lere Olayinka, who berated Dr. Aluko for acting mala fide. He said he spoke in his personal capacity, as if that capacity exists for an aide of the domineering, impertinent and obtruding governor. He went on to pour scorn on the penitent Dr. Aluko, and flattered Mr. Fayose with the fawning brilliance all the governor’s subdued appointees appear capable of.

A day after the very public peace deal, when it became clear Nigerians were incredulous and cynically contemptuous of everyone involved in the deal, Dr. Aluko came out smoking, describing the reconciliation as a set-up and Mr. Fayose an accomplished fraudster. He would have been believed had he made that remark when they emerged from the peace meeting venue to the critical embrace of newsmen. Thereafter, too, Mr. Fayose, Mr. Olayinka and Mr. Olugbemi threw caution to the winds and lathered Dr. Aluko with unprintable epithets.

The cut and thrust between the gentlemen from Ekiti showed they were all tarred with the same brush: brutal, comical and unprincipled. Each group tries to steal an advantage over the other, when in fact all they merely exhibit is their odiousness, with the governor himself being the chief abomination. None of them will live down the episode, even as the theatrics in the state, not to talk of the unravelling of the state’s politics, will not abate. Had Ekiti not cut its nose to spite its face in the 2014 governorship election, perhaps they would be breathing better today rather than sighing deeply with dismay as they now do over the opprobrium their politicians have brought upon them.

The Ekiti State government has announced the resignation of the Commissioner for Works and Transportation, Kayode Oso.

The circumstances surrounding his resignation remain unclear as he could not be reached for comments.

At a briefing in Ado-Ekiti yesterday, Secretary to the State Government Modupe Alade said Oso resigned on health grounds

Mrs. Alade said the announcement became necessary because government did not want the issue to be politicised.

She said: “Mr. Kayode Oso has worked hard to add value to this administration going by his effort towards the development of this state.

“His resignation on medical grounds, according to his letter, has been accepted by Governor Ayodele Fayose.

“We wish him quick recovery. The government will stand by him while he overcomes his health challenges.”

Oso, during the first coming of Fayose, started as Chief of Staff to the Governor and was later appointed as works commissioner.

He was reappointed on October 16, 2014.