The Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose has accused his predecessor, Kayode Fayemi of trying to bring back a stale matter in order to seize power from him.
Fayose made the accusation in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital on Monday while briefing the press.
He urged Nigerians to ask Fayemi when he would allow an end to litigation in a matter that had being adjudicated upon by all levels of judicial formations in the country, including the Supreme Court.
However, Fayose expressed optimism that Fayemi was only flogging a dead horse and chasing shadows.
According to the governor, Fayemi’s desperation to influence the apex court to revisit the matter arose because Fayemi knew he would never secure the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket for the 2018 governorship election in the state, not to talk of winning the election proper.
Fayose held that Fayemi’s action could truncate democracy in the state, as it would amount to subverting the will of the people.
Fayose said: “In the last few days, Fayemi has been boasting that the Supreme Court will be made to review its judgment of 14th April 2015, which validated my election. This was an election that was adjudged free, fair, and credible by both local and international observers, including the United States government. These renewed efforts are consequent upon the brick-walls he (Fayemi) has met on his plan to contest the 2018 governorship election as APC candidate.
“Having realised how difficult it will be for him to clinch APC ticket not to even talk of winning the election proper, Fayemi has opted to seek power through the back door, claiming that he already has the backing of three newly appointed justices of the Supreme Court, the DSS and other top organs of the federal government to force the Supreme Court to review its judgment on the Ekiti State 2014 governorship election.
“Fayemi and his cohorts are even boasting that they are only putting pressure on the new Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen to join them in the devilish plot.
“It was in furtherance to this plot and the assurances that he may have gotten that Fayemi said in an interview published in a newspaper of Sunday, March 26, 2017 that rather than joining a ‘so-called governorship race’, his preoccupation was to get to the root of what actually transpired in Ekiti on June 21, 2014, going further to state that ‘it is too early to start talking about 2018 governorship race when there is still unfinished business.’
“The question is; what unfinished business was he talking about in an election that he lost clearly? What unfinished business does Fayemi have with an election that I won fair and square, defeating him in all the 16 local governments of the state, including his home town of Isan-Ekiti?
“Mind you, that June 2014 election was the second time I would be trouncing an incumbent governor, the first being in 2003 when I defeated the sitting Alliance for Democracy (AD) governor, Otunba Niyi Adebayo.
“As I address you today, there is credible information that Fayemi has provided fund for the filing of the matter at the Supreme Court and he has assured his loyalists in the APC in Ekiti State that the Presidency and a section of the judiciary, especially the newly appointed Supreme Court justices are in total support of the plot to remove me at all cost.
“It is however my advice that the Supreme Court and indeed the entire judiciary should be mindful of this banana peel coming from the same people who orchestrated the DSS invasion of judges residences in the night just because they refused to assist them to perpetrate injustice.
“This is more so that Fayemi and his collaborators are not unaware that Order 8, Rule 16 of the Supreme Court expressly stated that the court shall not review its judgment once giving, except there was a clerical mistake or slip.
“They are also aware of the position of the Supreme Court judgment on Andy Uba that there must be an end to litigation, a position also affirmed in the case of Prof. Steve Torkuma Ugba vs. Gebriel Torwua Suswam. “LMost importantly, in Segun Oni vs Fayemi, he (Fayemi) was a beneficiary of the suis generis (time bound) nature of election matter and the matter becoming functus officio once judgment is delivered by the final court as provided by the Electoral Act, and sane minds should wonder what magic he intends to perform by going to the Supreme Court on an election matter already determined at the final court, if not that he may have indeed gotten the assurance of the powers that be.
“One is therefore concerned that people who go about parading credentials as democrats will be so vicious that they won’t accept defeat, close to three years after they lost an election even in their own family house.
“We are also concerned that allegation made by a Supreme Court Judge, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, that the Minister of Transportation and former governor of Rivers State, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi begged him to ensure that Governor Fayose’s election was set aside and another election ordered for his friend, Fayemi to contest was ignored.
“If Fayemi tried, using Amaechi to approach Supreme Court justices to procure black market judgment then, nothing stops him from trying to do same now and we urge Nigerians to take note.
“We are therefore alerting Nigerians once again of this plot coming from Fayemi and his APC people who have proven over time that they are bad losers and will never respect the will of the people. “The fact that I have more or less become the opposition last-man standing should not be made to become the reason an avoidable banana peel will be placed on the path of the Supreme Court and I urge our Supreme Court justices to be mindful of being rubbished by desperate politicians.
“If they are worried about my stance on national issues, they should do things differently in the interest of Nigerians that are hungry and suffering under the yoke of bad governance of the APC,” he said. Fayose expressed confidence that the new plot would fail like previous ones.
“Fayemi and his backers in Abuja must be reminded that Ekiti people are united behind me and will fight him and his cohorts with the last blood in our veins. The power of the people is mightier than “Federal might” If they dare Ekiti, they will meet their nemesis. If they do not retreat and put an end to their diabolical plots, Ekiti will be their Waterloo,” he added.
The governor further advised the justices of the Supreme Court not to allow themselves to be debased and used by unscrupulous politicians.
