Tension in Ekiti as plans to impeach Fayose thicken
Ostensibly acting on the information that the APC lawmakers would arrive the town yesterday to continue their impeachment plot against Governor Ayodele Fayose, some suspected thugs also barricaded all roads leading to the state House of Assembly, shooting sporadically into the air to scare people away from the complex.
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Beside the several patrol vans stationed at every junction linking to the House of Assembly, an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) was stationed in front of the assembly while combat-ready anti-riot policemen were on guard to forestall a breakdown of law and order.
Commercial and business activities in most parts of the town were as well grounded while pupils were sent back from schools. As at 3.30p.m, some PDP members still flocked around the Assembly while the policemen were yet to leave the vicinity.
Fayose, who addressed journalists at the Governor’s Lodge over the tension, described the lawmakers’ action as illegal. He disclosed that the APC lawmakers’ entitlements have been fully paid, contrary to claims by the factional Speaker, Adewale Omirin, that they were yet to get bank alert, and displayed copies of Skye Bank cheques dated May 26, 2015, to that effect to corroborate his claim.
One of the cheques, N2, 149, 052 .37, was received on behalf of the lawmaker against whom it was issued.
However, Fayose said it would amount to illegality for Omirin to continue with any impeachment proceeding against him in view of the ruling by Justice E. S. Chukwu of the Federal High Court, which ordered that the status quo as at April 23, 2015, be maintained till the determination of the motion on notice.
The other factional Speaker, Dele Olugbemi, and six other lawmakers had in a suit at the Federal High Court sought an interlocutory injunction restraining the APC lawmakers from commencing impeachment against Fayose, among other reliefs.
“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,” Fayose said.
“As at the date the court gave the order (April 23), 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
Muhammadu 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.”
According to Fayose, “they came to collect the cheques in Ado Ekiti in company of the Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Toyin Ojo. The issue would have been discussed publicly during the peace parley, but they insisted that it should not be discussed openly because they didn’t want the leaders of their party to know.”
He urged Ekiti people to be prepared by keeping eyes on the lawmakers to prevent them from carrying out their planned nefarious act.
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