Former Governor of Ekiti State and current Minister of Solid Minerals and Steel Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi has described the current state Governor Ayodele Fayose’s allegation of a plot by him and ex-Governor Segun Oni to compromise the judiciary and remove him from office as spurious.
According to Fayemi, the allegation is not only “irresponsible but unfair” to the two former governors of the state.
He said in statement by his Spokesman, Yinka Oyebode,: “It would appear, Governor Fayose wakes up daily in search of new controversies and how to make one spurious allegation after another. And it does not really matter to him whether such allegations are reasonable, logical or sensible. This allegation is not only irresponsible, but unfair to the two former governors of the state. And one is not surprised at this, because under Fayose, falsehood has been elevated to the level of statecraft, sustained by machinery of state.”
Fayemi added that he and Oni would never involve themselves in acts that can ridicule the judiciary.
Oni in a statement by his Media Aide, Mr. Ayo Akinyemi said,
“Fayose himself knows that no judiciary can remove him now because he enjoys immunity until the expiration of his tenure on October 15, 2018. He can only be investigated, so what is Fayose talking about?
“Perhaps Fayose is afraid of facing the law after his immunity might have expired next year and that is why he is labouring now to spill the beans in anticipation of his doom. He is a drowning man trying to clutch the last straw and smear anybody. In a normal setting, should he have contested for governorship in the first instance? This is a man having corruption cases hanging on his neck and was facing trial in the court.”
Fayose had in a petition to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) Justice Walter Onnoghen, alleged that the ruling APC is plotting with the help of two former governors of the state, Engr. Oni and Dr. Fayemi, to employ some judges, including the controversial Justice Okon Abang to compromise justice and remove him from office.
Fayose accuses APC of plot to compromise judiciary to remove him, writes CJN Onnoghen, Says; Fayemi, Oni behind plot
Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State had alerted the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen, of fresh plots by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to compromise a section of the Judiciary and muzzle democracy in their desperation to oust him from office, saying; “The essence of all of these is to silence him as
the voice of opposition in the country because he has bluntly rejected all overtures to him to defect into the ruling APC or stop talking.”
The governor, who warned against any plot to destabilise Ekiti State, wondered how long the Ekiti APC and its collaborators will pursue their clandestine agenda of reversing an election they lost over 30 months ago and validated by the tribunal, appeal court and the Supreme
Court.”
In the letter he addressed to Justice Onnoghen, Fayose alleged that “certain APC chieftains were again making subterranean moves to manipulate and compromise a section of the Judiciary, particularly some judges, to get through the back door what they failed severally to achieve through the ballot box as well as in open court, even in matters already decided by the Supreme Court.”
He said: “At a recent meeting held in Ado-Ekiti, the State capital, at which several stalwarts and chieftains of the All Progressives
Congress were in attendance, two former governors of the State and members of the APC, namely Engr. Segun Oni and Dr. Kayode Fayemi, now a Federal Minister, boasted that there is no going back on the latest plans to subvert the will of the people of Ekiti freely given; wrest the governance of Ekiti from me at all costs before the expiration of my tenure in October 2018 through orchestrated but dubious legal process; and thereby render nugatory the sacred mandate of the people given unto me openly and unequivocally when I won in all the 16 local governments of the state while the then incumbent Governor, Kayode Fayemi recorded zero.”
Fingering the hands of the Presidency in the latest plot, with Oni and Fayemi as their local arrow heads, Governor Fayose alleged that a concocted fresh suit is being rehashed and to be filed against him on the same old allegation that have been trashed all the way from the Tribunal to the Supreme Court.
He alleged that; “this time, the plotters of this judicial coup-de-tat plan to procure the services of a compromised or malleable
judge to get self-serving ‘jankara’ and kangaroo judgment with the intention of having the Supreme Court reverse itself on the June 2014
Ekiti election.
“Segun Oni and Kayode Fayemi boastfully claimed that they have enlisted the assurances of Justice Okon Abang and one or two other judges in the concocted fresh suit, hinged on the report of a useless, senseless, and orchestrated Military report not known to the Electoral law.”
Urging the CJN to take “notice of judicial pronouncements by courts of concurrent jurisdiction as well as the scathing remarks of appellate courts on how the said Justice Okon Abang has been used in the past by anti-democratic forces to endanger democracy and engage in deleterious miscarriage of justice”, Fayose prayed that the Judiciary would not
succumb to devious plots to undermine its independence and integrity and rubbish its good name and hard-earned reputation any more.
“My Lord, you have a duty to ensure that no Judge under your watch is enlisted into this diabolical act by any rampaging anti-democratic elements.
“The embarrassing incidents currently playing out on our National Judicial horizon, with several judicial officers, including serving
Justices of the Supreme Court, enmeshed in simulated and orchestrated corruption scandals and indictments by agencies of the Federal
Government because they had refused, at one time or the other, to serve the base interests of the ruling APC government in matters
pending before their Lordships, have kept us wondering whether the Judiciary will succumb to these unwarranted harassments and
intimidation meant to coerce and cower it into submission and make this very important and indispensable Third Estate of the Realm subservient to the arbitrary wishes, whims, and caprices of the Executive and political desperados,” he said.
Describing himself as “a leading opposition figure in Nigeria today that has been very critical of the anti-people policies of the Federal Government and its anti-democratic actions that endanger our renascent democracy”, Fayose added that “democracy without virile opposition will eventually turn into a dictatorship, which is currently being experienced.”
Fayose said he would continue to believe in the Judiciary going by the open declaration of the CJN to defend the Independence of the Judiciary; maintain its integrity and deliver a virile and disciplined Judiciary that is impartial, independent, non-partisan, and not
subservient to the selfish interests of any individual, group or cabal, however powerful or influential they may be.
The governor therefore expressed the confidence that Justice Onnoghen in particular and the Judiciary in general would not only refuse to fall for the APC’s cheap and pedestrian blackmail but would also resolutely and confidently defend the hallowed grounds of the Judiciary and secure them from desecration by anti-democratic forces running riot all over the country.
