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Tag: Fayose

  • Alleged killing: you lied, APC tells Fayose

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has described as untrue reports that the convoy of the 19 APC lawmakers killed a man at Efon Alaaye-Ekiti on Tuesday.

    It said that the report by Governor Ayodele Fayose’s media aide, Lere Olayinka, alleging that the lawmakers’s convoy killed a man was the figment of his imagination and one in the series of media spins he had been selling to the unsuspecting public to mislead the people to get sympathy.

    Reacting to social and electronic media reports of the purported killing, the Special Adviser on Media to Speaker Adewale Omirin, Mr. Wole Olujobi, said the governor’s  aide was on a familiar terrain of mindless propaganda to mislead the public.

    “The truth is that no one was killed. Nobody saw a body on the way up to Itawure junction where the soldiers disallowed us to pass. Itawure junction is not the same as Efon-Alaaye, so we don’t know where he got his story from.

    ”However, we heard that Fayose removed a dead body from the mortuary and presented it to Efon people, claiming that Hon. Folorunso Ogundele, a member of the House of Assembly from Efon-Alaaye, pulled the trigger to kill a fellow Efon-Alaaye man in order to instigate violence in the town against him,” the statement said.

    It added: “For those who know Fayose very well, this story is typical of his rabble-rousing tactics to cause mob action against his opponents.

    “It is gratifying that the people were able to quickly decipher that Fayose was up to a mischief to set brothers against brothers.”

     

  • APC Action Group: Fayose has not learnt any lesson

    APC Action Group: Fayose has not learnt any lesson

    The Ekiti State All Progressives Congress (APC) Action Group has said Governor Ayo Fayose has not learnt any lesson from his first impeachment from office in 2006.

    The group in a statement on Tuesday by its spokesman Segun Dipe said the latest crisis rocking the state could be traced to the governor’s penchant for illegalities since coming back to power in October last year.

    The APC Action Group who said “Fayose must do equity before asking for equity” wondered why he (Fayose) had been crying foul when he himself was impunity-personified.

    The body argued that Fayose cannot at this point be talking about law and legality, which he had dealt a big blow by his many constitutional infringements.

    The group thus urged all Ekiti sons and daughters to ignore Fayose’s false alarm and see his looming impeachment as good riddance to bad rubbish.

    “Ekiti is bigger than Fayose and Fayose, Mr. Impunity is unfit to govern Ekiti State,” it added.

    It slammed the governor for allegedly whipping up sentiments regarding his looming impeachment while featuring on his monthly media chat, Meet Your Governor.

    The statement read in part: “Or has he forgotten that the G19 APC lawmakers that he has been hounding from performing their legislative functions were also duly elected representatives of their people?

    “It is laughable for Fayose to have described as illegal the notice of gross misconduct and abuse of office issued to him by the Honourable Speaker, Dr. Adewale Omirin and the group of 19 APC lawmakers.

    “He said a case was in court regarding the position of the speaker. But he has forgotten that even his position as governor is suffering illegitimacy. Vowing to resist impeachment and asking the people of Ekiti to fight for him is therefore an empty threat.

    “Fayose has further threatened to block all roads leading to Ekiti as a way of disallowing the group of 19 from carrying out their normal legislative duties. What is that if not an abuse of office?

    “Fayose’s government is that of terror and impunity, which is built on quicksand.

    “If he is lamenting that he would be impeached for a second time, following that of 2006, it then means that he has not learnt any lesson from the first impeachent and cannot learn anything from this one.”

  • Impeachment crisis: Ekiti Obas call for peace

    Impeachment crisis: Ekiti Obas call for peace

    The Ekiti State Council of Traditional Rulers has urged parties locked in the raging impeachment crisis to sheathe their swords and allow peace to reign.

    The monarchs have scheduled an emergency meeting for Thursday to deliberate on the political situation in the state with a view to finding solution to the crisis.

    The Chairman of the Obas’ Council, Oba Adamo Babalola, warned against resort to violence urging any aggrieved party to approach the court for redress.

    Babalola who is also the Onitaji of Itaji-Ekiti in Oye Local Government Area revealed that several attempts had been made in the past to resolve the House of Assembly crisis without success which necessitated the latest move.

    He said: “We have been told the runaway legislators are coming back to Ekiti State and that impeachment notice has been served.

    “I don’t know whether that is true, but we need to give peace a chance and allow the Obas to come in deliberate on the matter.

    “We have made attempts severally to settle the dispute between the executive and legislative arms. The legislators did not answer us.

    “I don’t know why coming to Ekiti should involve impeachment. We will hold a meeting on Thursday to deliberate on the matter.

    “People should maintain peace and people should not be disallowed from doing their businesses. The court is there for adjudication and we should make use of that.”

  • Impeachment: Fayose supporters block Assembly complex

    Impeachment: Fayose supporters block Assembly complex

    Scores of supporters of Governor Ayo Fayose on Monday blocked all access roads leading to the Ekiti State House of Assembly Complex in a bid to prevent any impeachment proceedings.

    They had arrived the vicinity as early as 8.00 am and staged a protest around the Assembly complex saying they would never allow any impeachment process against Fayose to see the light of the day.

    Their action was consequent upon a rumor that the 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers who form majority in the Assembly would storm the complex to hold a sitting to impeach Fayose from office.

    The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) loyalists stormed the Assembly area singing pro-Fayose songs and cursed the APC lawmakers for harboring plans to remove the governor whom they claim is innocent of the impeachable offences.

    Backed by some government and party officials who were there to give them solidarity, they used a government-owned Ashok Leyland luxury bus to block the access road-Saliu Adeoti Road-to prevent the opposition lawmakers from gaining access to the complex.

    Among prominent PDP members who were present to give them moral support are Deputy Governor Kolapo Olusola, former House of Assembly Speaker, Olatunji Odeyemi and Special Assistant on Information, Youth and Sports, Lanre Ogunsuyi.

    Not less than nine Toyota Hilux vans belonging to the Police and Department of State Services (DSS) containing heavily armed operatives were parked at two main entrances leading to the Assembly complex.

    The PDP members later turned the blockade into a roadshow singing and dancing to music at the gate of the House of Assembly Service Commission office which used to be the former Assembly complex.

    They were prevented from coming near the new Assembly complex by the battle-ready and stern-looking security men drafted there to maintain law and order.

    Many of them who were weary of singing and dancing and could no longer withstand the heat of the sun sat under canopies placed in front of the old Assembly complex.

    Addressing reporters on the purpose of the blockade, Ogunsuyi said Ekiti people are ready to take their destiny in their hand by fighting for the mandate they gave to Fayose on June 21 last year.

    The governor’s aide insisted that all the actions of the APC lawmakers reeked of illegality and impunity saying Dr. Adewale Omirin is no longer the Speaker and lacks the power to preside over the Assembly.

    Ogunsuyi added that Omirin is already in court challenging his impeachment saying he cannot be laying claim to the speakership at the same time adding that the APC caucus are desecrating the rule of law and the Constitution.

    He said: “The new Nigeria which President Goodluck Jonathan and Major Gen Muhammadu Buhari all campaigned for is the one that would respect the Rule of Law.

    “With this convergence, you can see that the people are standing by their Governor. They are ready to defend their mandate.

    “Nobody asked Omirin and other APC lawmakers not to come to the Assembly, they only decided to abdicate their duties since last year November 17.

    “Impeachment procedure does not start and end with Assembly alone. The Judiciary is involved, so this plan is highly condemnable.

    “We want to emphasize that they are welcome as long as they are concerned about making laws for the progress of the State, but if it was meant to come and impeach Governor Fayose, we won’t allow that.”

    Ogunsuyi, however said the Governor as the leader of the State will continue to wave the olive branch to the opposition lawmakers for Ekiti to remain in peace and harmony.

    He said: “We don’t want any unwholesome issue because the task of developing Ekiti is an onerous task that needed to be pursue with vigour. The Governor doesn’t want any distraction and that is why he has been pursuing peace at all times.

    “We want some measures of decorum in Ekiti; we are not proud of the era whereby we had three governors within a week. We want a stable government and that we will continue to pursue for Ekiti to be at peace”.

    Also speaking on the development, Odeyemi appealed to the APC House members to allow peace to reign in the state saying the image of Ekiti is at stake nationally and internationally.

    Odeyemi advised the APC lawmakers to put the interest of the state above personal or partisan interests warning that breakdown of law and order is an ill-wind that won’t blow any good.

    He said: “The entire issue calls for concerns. As a former legislator, I am quite aware of the rudiment of impeachment process, but far from this, the issue of the news any impeachment will bring to Ekiti’s credibility is uppermost in my mind.

    “How would they perceive Ekiti as a people nationwide? So, I am calling on my colleagues to have a rethink because we are duty bound to contribute to the development of this State.

    “I plead with them to embrace reconciliation and forget about heating up the polity unnecessarily.”

  • Ekiti: APC lawmakers urge Fayose to stop stoking violence

    Ekiti: APC lawmakers urge Fayose to stop stoking violence

    The 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers in Ekiti State House of Assembly have advised Governor Ayodele Fayose to stop stoking violence in the state over his impeachment notice.

    They said instigating crisis is not the way to go in defending the removal notice served him by the Assembly. The lawmakers said resorting to violence against Ekiti people was compounding his problems.

    In a statement by Special Adviser on Media to Speaker ‎Adewale Omirin, Wole Olujobi, the lawmakers said violence would not solve the burden of constitutional breaches that the governor had placed on himself.

    They frowned at the invasion of the Assembly by suspected PDP thugs, wondering why a governor that had questions to answer on legal matters would get himself involved in other illegal matters such as the invasion of the Assembly by thugs to cause public disorder.

    The statement said: “It is shocking that the governor would start any act of illegality bordering on public disorder when he is having a load of illegal acts on his head upon which he is facing removal from office.

    “‎Ekiti people were shocked when news spread that the governor had asked his thugs to invade the Assembly and occupy the place to prevent the lawmakers from performing their legal duties.

    “These PDP members were holding their meeting in their secretariat when instruction reached them that they must relocate to the Assembly premises where thugs were beating passersby and molesting motorists and residents. All these illegal acts ‎cannot save the governor.

    “This is the way he invaded the court with thugs to beat up the judges. They tore court records in the Chief Judge’s office and beat up his secretary. Now is the turn of the House of Assembly. What the governor is doing is a confirmation that he does not believe and cannot tolerate democratic practice. But democracy is what Ekiti people want and so we expect people of conscience and good will to support efforts to allow Ekiti people enjoy democratic governance,” the statement said.

    It advised the governor to defend the allegations against him in the impeachment notice instead of resorting to self-help that offers nothing but unnecessary venting of anger on the peaceful people of Ekiti State.

  • Impeachment, ploy to distract me, says Fayose

    Impeachment, ploy to distract me, says Fayose

    Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has described moves to impeach him by 19 of the 26 House of Assembly members as a ploy to distract him from concentrating on governance.

    Fayose said the people would defend his mandate against those he described as political usurpers whom they had rejected twice in the last nine months.

    Speaking through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor urged the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud  Mohammed, to sustain his stand of not allowing the use of the judiciary to change the outcome of elections.

    He also called on members and supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) not to be distracted from their goal of delivering all the 26 Assembly seats in the State to the party.

    He said: “Sovereignty belongs to the people and the people of Ekiti State on June 21, 2014, surrendered their sovereignty to me to be their governor for four years.

    “Instead of respecting the wish of Ekiti people, which they again affirmed on March 28 and will further affirm on April 4,  the APC people that were rejected in two free and fair elections have been trying all tricks to return to power through the back door.

    “They filed several cases in their bid to stop my inauguration as governor and even committed murder in the process.”

    “The Speaker of the State House of Assembly then, Dr Adewale Omirin, was assured of assuming office as Acting Governor and that informed his non-attendance of my inauguration,  as he was still hoping that even on October 16, 2014, a court order would be gotten to stop my inauguration.

    “Their evil plots against the mandate of Ekiti people failed then, but up to now, they are not relenting.

    “However, let me warn the APC as a party to respect the wish of Ekiti people as the PDP and President Goodluck Jonathan respected the wish of Nigerians on the election of Major General Muhammadu Buhari.

    “Any attempt to undermine the sovereignty of Ekiti people, using whatever instrument will be resisted by the people themselves because power belongs to the people and they have handed it to whom they desire to exercise till October 16, 2018.

    “The APC gladiators in Ekiti should therefore emulate President Jonathan and the PDP by waiting till 2018 to try their luck again.”

    Minister of State for Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye has described the impeachment notice as a “political comedy”.

    The minister, in a statement, said “posting notice of impeachment of a governor online when the House of Assembly never sat to pass any Motion  for Impeachment is not only ridiculous, but criminal.”

    The minister said it was necessary that the President-elect Muhammadu Buhari should call members of APC to order so that they don’t by their desperation for power in Ekiti State truncate democracy in Nigeria.

    He said it was disheartening that APC members in the state were capitalising on Buhari’s victory to cause crisis in the state, adding: “If President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had behaved the way APC people are behaving in Ekiti State now, the country would have been in chaos by now.”

    Adeyeye, who described the purported impeachment notice as “laughable”, said legislative  businesses are conducted inside the hallowed chamber of the House of Assembly, not online.

    He said: “Is it online that lawmakers sit to move motion for impeachment, adopt the motion and serve impeachment notice?

    “Dr Adewale Omirin, who signed the purported impeachment notice  as Speaker of the State House of Assembly is in court, challenging his impeachment and if he is still the Speaker,  what then is he challenging in court?

    “Also, the online notice of impeachment was dated March 9, 2015 and the governor was given seven days to respond to the allegations purportedly made against him. So, what has happened since March 16, 2015 that the seven days ultimatum ended?”

    The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ado-Ekiti Branch, has advised political gladiators in the state to tread cautiously.

    The branch chairman, Dr. Foluke Dada, urged the PDP and the APC to advise their members to exercise restraint and give peace a chance.

    She expressed regret that lack of political tolerance among the two leading parties is causing tension in the state.

    The Ado-Ekiti NBA chair promised that the lawyers’ body would continue to work with major stakeholders, the police and all political interests to ensure that the Ekiti project succeeds.

    Dada called on the state chapter of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) to suspend its strike so that all pending matters affecting the state could be adjudicated upon in the interest of all.

     

  • Aliyu, Mimiko, Fayose, others shun meeting with Jonathan

    Aliyu, Mimiko, Fayose, others shun meeting with Jonathan

    GOVERNORS Aliyu Babangida (Niger), Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo), Sule Lamido (Jigawa), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina) and Ayodele Fayose (Ekiti) yesterday shunned a meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum with President Goodluck Jonathan.

    The forum’s chairman and Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, said some of the PDP gover?nors could not make it to the meeting because the notice was short.

    Among the PDP  governors who met with Jonathan were Theodore Orji (Abia); Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa) and Liyel Imoke (Cross River).

    Idris Wada (Kogi); Emmanuel Uduaghan (Delta); Martin Elechi (Ebonyi); Ibrahim Dankwambo (Gombe); Murktar Yero (Kaduna); Jonah Jang (Plateau); and Sullivan Chime (Enugu) attended the meeting.

    Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting, Akpabio maintained that the party will not lose any of its states during April 11 governorship elections.

    The party lost the presidential election last Saturday to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Akpabio praised Jonathan for sacrificing his political ambition for the sake of Nigeria.

    According to him, Jonathan has set a statesmanly record in Africa by conceding victory to the opposition despite alleged flaws in the election.

    He reiterated the party’s position that it would explore possible legal options in seeking redress over the anomalies observed during the election.

    Akpabio also said the PDP was glad to have piloted the affairs of the country for the past 16 years and giving Nigeria a very peaceful transition that had shocked all and sundry.

    The governor also dismissed reports that the PDP National Chairman, Adamu Muazu, had resigned his appointment.

    He said that he spoke with Muazu 30 minutes earlier and nothing of such had happened.

  • Fayose congratulates Buhari

    Fayose congratulates Buhari

    The Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has congratulated General Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), on his victory in the March 28 presidential election.

    Mr. Fayose in a state broadcast urged Nigerians to accept the outcome of the Saturday presidential election in good faith.

    He said: “the election result is the will of God and Nigerians, and all lovers of peace, progress and development of Nigeria must accept it.”

    The governor hailed the resilience and commitment of President Goodluck Jonathan and General Buhari (rtd).

    The governor has been an unrepentant critic of Buhari who have impugned on his integrity, saying he is too old to govern Nigeria, sick and other petty accusations.

    Fayose said the election results should not be seen as victory or loss for any political party, adding that: “To me, Nigerians and democracy won.”

    He praised Nigerians for believing in the democratic process, adding that; “By this election, Nigerians have shown that Democracy has come to stay in the country.

  • Fayose: Supreme Court reserves judgment for April 14

    Fayose: Supreme Court reserves judgment for April 14

    The Supreme Court has reserved judgment in the Ekiti Governorship election petition filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the victory of Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State in the June 21, 2014 poll.

    The APC had gone to the elections petition tribunal sitting in Ado-Ekiti to challenge Fayose’s victory on grounds of non-eligibility over indictment charge upon which he was impeached.

    Fayose is being challenged over perjury, after he filled his INEC form denying that he had never been indicted by either administrative or judicial panel. A candidate convicted of perjury is barred by the Nigerian law to contest election.

    The tribunal was relocated to Abuja after Fayose led thugs to the premises of the tribunal where the State High Court is located to attack the judges sitting over his indictment suit filed by Ekiti elite group, E-Eleven.

    In the attack, judges were beaten and court records in the Chief Judge’s office were torn into shreds. The Chief Judge’s secretary was beaten.

    The case was however dismissed at the election petitions tribunal. APC appealed the judgment but the Appeal Court upheld the decision of the tribunal.

    It however frowned at the deployment of the army to harass members of the opposition and barred the President from deploying the army in the future elections. The Appeal Court further affirmed that Fayose was legally impeached in 2006 over indictment in a fraud case involving N1.3 billion, among other matters.

    A secretly recorded tape by Captain Sagir Koli that has gone viral has since revealed how the Army helped Fayose to win the election. It also revealed Fayose talking about how he collected INEC soft copies and got them printed to aid his election.

    The major prayer of the APC before the Supreme Court is that former Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, be declared as the duly elected Governor of Ekiti State having scored the majority of legal votes in the election and since Fayose was ineligible to contest.

    The Supreme Court listened to the arguments of all parties in the suit and reserved judgment for April 14, 2015.

  • Fayose must be cautioned

    SIR: Who will help us tell Mr. Ayodele Fayose, the governor of Ekiti state to desist from bringing disrepute to the office with his unguarded utterances? He keeps on embarrassing himself, his family and his state in public by ascribing concocted ill-health to General Muhammad Buhari, the All Progressives Congress(APC) presidential candidate.

    Mr. Fayose has consistently been describing General Buhari as too old and sick to be president of Nigeria, the latest being his allegation that the General travelled to the United Kindom (UK) on medical grounds. Fayose is busy denigrating the age and person of General Buhari to the extent of wishing him dead.

    The rascally way of his campaign against General Buhari has not in any away added value to our democracy and politics, neither has it added value to the presidential campaign of President Goodluck Jonathan. It is all about politics of violence and thuggery, forgetting that all the presidential candidates have signed peace accord. No wonder, a member of the House of Representatives from his home state, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, described Mr. Fayose as a ‘cancer to today politics ’ and that he should be advised to play politics with decorum. Fayose’s rascality should have been a thing of the past, having claimed to be of age, refined, more experienced and more mature governor. But he was so reckless and crude in his approach of support to the outgoing incumbent president.

    With this kind of rascality by Mr. Fayose, Ekiti state people are in real trouble under his leadership. Let it be known to Mr. Fayose that it is a sacrilege in Yoruba land for younger ones to be disrespectful to their elders. Those wishing the General dead should note that death will come when it will come. Let Mr. Fayose be warned.

     

    • Adeyemi Omotunde, 

     omodeyemi1@yahoo.com