The coming days would witness a tensed political environment in Ekiti State as the 19 members of the State House of Assembly, who are also members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have vowed to ensure that the State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose is effectively impeached in a case that looks like a pay-back for how he treated the lawmakers last year.
The lawmakers who had to run to Lagos when the heat became unbearable, have now found their voices, following the victory recorded by the party in the recent presidential election in the country.
Two of the lawmakers on the platform of the APC told Huhuonline.com on Sunday that nothing would stop their action against the governor.
“It is not a personal fight we have with him. It is a fight against immorality in Ekiti State Government. It is a fight against injustice. It is a fight against the shameful behaviour of the governor of a State like Ekiti with highly enlightened people.
“Since this whole thing started, we have been facing serious threats from the governor and his people, but our stand is basically that the governor has not respected that exalted seat,” one of the lawmakers told Huhuonline while keeping his location secret.
They also confirmed that the impeachment was not pushed by the party’s national headquarters but that the aggrieved members feel the State does not deserve a Governor that is not ready to govern.
In an impeachment notice sent by courier to Fayose, the lawmakers who are the majority in a 26-member House, listed eight allegations against the governor and asked him to respond within seven days.
The alleged sins by Fayose include:
* Invasion of the House of Assembly with thugs and miscreants;
* Instigating an unconstitutional takeover of the House by seven legislators to sit in contravention of Section 96 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria;
* Prevention of the 19 APC legislative members from performing legislative duties with the use of security agents and armed thugs;
*Sponsoring an unlawful impeachment process in the House;
* Spending Ekiti State funds without requisite constitutional approval in contravention of the Constitution;
* Running the government of Ekiti State without legally constituted Executive Council in contravention of Section 192 (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria;
* Operating an illegal 2014 Budget and
* Instigating illegal sitting of the House.
But on Sunday evening, Fayose, who had earlier called the lawmakers jesters, further described his governorship as a mandate freely and wholeheartedly given by Ekiti people, adding that “Ekiti people who are the owners of my mandate will defend it against political usurpers, whom they had rejected twice in the last nine
months.”
According to his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor also 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.
Fayose, who described the noise of impeachment and Supreme Court judgment being made by the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a plot to distract him from concentrating on governance and the coming Saturday’s House of Assembly election, called on members and supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the State 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 21st June 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 till now, they are not relenting.
“Today, even though Omirin has been duly impeached, he still believes he can be Acting Governor while Dr Kayode Fayemi that was roundly rejected by Ekiti people is also boasting that he will return to power through the instrumentality of the court.
“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 Mohammadu Buhari (rtd).
“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.”
Also, the Minister of State for Works, Prince Dayo Adeyeye on Sunday warned the APC and its members in Ekiti State to tread cautiously so as not to endanger democracy in the country.
“Posting notice of impeachment of a State governor online when the House of Assembly never sat to pass any Motion for Impeachment is not only ridiculous, but criminal,” the Minister said adding that it was necessary that the President-elect, General Mohammadu Buhari, should call members of APC in Ekiti State to order so that they do not by their desperation for power in Ekiti State truncate democracy on Nigeria.
He said it was disheartening that APC members in Ekiti State were capitalising on Buhari’s victory to cause crisis in the State, adding that “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.
“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?
“Methinks this is political comedy at its absurdity and the APC should stop this display of unseriousness and face the coming Saturday House of Assembly election, which they are going to lose.”
