There was tension in Ekiti State yesterday as 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) members of the state House of Assembly made fresh moves to oust the Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose. The police mounted checkpoints along major roads leading to Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, from neighbouring states, especially Osun, where the APC lawmakers are reportedly hiding. Also, the security around the House of Assembly complex was beefed up, just as civil servants working at the state secretariat, close to the assembly complex, had a hectic time accessing their offices.
To prevent being caught unawares, members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) massed around the state secretariat and NTA, while barricades were mounted to prevent easy human and vehicular movements to the assembly. Governor Fayose, who addressed journalists on the development, said he could not understand the renewed hostilities after all he had done to pacify the lawmakers. He said all the entitlements of the APC lawmakers had been paid contrary to the claim by the factional Speaker, Dr. Adewale Omirin that they were yet to get alerts from their banks.
Fayose showed copies of the Skye Bank cheques dated May 26 issued to the lawmakers to corroborate his claim. One of the cheques, which was drawn in the name of Boluwade Bolie Kehinde, was received on behalf of the lawmaker and had the sum of N2,149, 052.37 written on it.
He said it would amount to illegality for Omirin to continue with any impeachment proceeding against him in view of the ruling delivered by Justice E.S. Chukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja which ordered that status quo as at April 23 be maintained pending the determination of the motion on notice. “They have been dropping the name of President Muhammadu Buhari as giving them the backing to impeach me. How can an Assembly, whose tenure will wind up on Thursday, be planning this? I wonder why the issue of the past should be allowed to come to play now. “As at the date the court gave the order, I mean April 23, Hon. Adewale Omirin was not the speaker.
It will be wrong for the court order not to be respected. This is illegality and I want to raise this for the public to know. “Omirin has gone to court to challenge his impeachment and later withdrew such, which means he accepted he had been impeached and a cost of N100, 000 was awarded against him. “So, he is not the speaker. I am calling on well meaning Nigerians, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Mahmoud and President Buhari to intervene in this matter. “How can somebody be living in another state and planning to invade his own state?
This is something else and I view this as a major crime anyone can commit against his people,” he said. Fayose urged Ekiti people to be prepared by keeping eyes on the lawmakers and prevent them from carrying out their alleged nefarious act, saying vigilance is the key word.
It was learnt that the planned journey of the 19 APC members to the state to commence impeachment moves suffered a setback. Findings by our correspondent in Ado-Ekiti revealed that the insistence of police authorities that since the matter of who is the authentic speaker of the Assembly is still in court, then the status quo ante be maintained, was one of the reasons the lawmakers had to shelve their planned trip.
It was gathered that the APC legislators, who have been staying in Osogbo since weekend, contacted the police authorities to provide cover for them to come to Ado-Ekiti. However, security chiefs, who also supported the peace meeting between the lawmakers and Fayose held last week in Akure, Ondo State, relied on the position of the law on the matter.
Meanwhile, the PDP has called on Buhari to call the APC lawmakers to order, warning that their actions can trigger mayhem in the state. PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said members of the party in Ekiti State would be fully mobilised to resist the ouster bid. “We wish to state in very clear terms that we would not condone any more moves by the rejected APC lawmakers to subvert the will of the people of Ekiti state as expressed in the mandate freely given to Governor Fayose. “These outgoing APC lawmakers whose mandates have already been withdrawn by the people should watch their steps and not in any way take our civility and Fayose’s deportment for peace, unity and harmony for granted,” the party said in a statement.
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