Fayose: APC plans to truncate my inauguration

EKITI State governor-elect Mr. Ayodele Fayose has accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of trying to obtain judgment through the backdoor to truncate his inauguration on October 16 and install the Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly as acting governor.

Fayose, who disclosed this at a media briefing at his Magodo, Lagos residence yesterday, said the target of the APC, through Justice Segun Ogunyemi, was to obtain a jankara (backdoor) judgment and install the Speaker under the pretext that he (Fayose) was not qualified to contest the June 21 governorship election.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate said it was curious that Justice Ogunyemi, who was forced to stop court proceedings by suspected party thugs recently, delivered the judgment on preliminary objections in the morning.

He added that the judge was going to proceed to hear the substantive suit and deliver judgment the same day.

But the thugs disrupted the court proceedings in Ado Ekiti, the state capital and chased away the judge and lawyers from court room with dangerous weapons.

Fayose said the events in Ekiti State showed that certain interests were being represented and that some judicial officers are being compromised.

The governor-elect, who was supported by former Deputy Governor Abiodun Olujimi during the briefing, said the E-11, an association of professionals of Ekiti State origin, had instituted the case against him two weeks before the June 21 election, claiming that he was not qualified to contest the polls.

He argued that it appeared as if the judge suddenly woken from a slumber and wanted to rush the case to represent certain interests.

His words: “Will it not interest you to know that in less than 24 hours, the judge has turned in the case file. This same judge had adjourned this matter for more than three months. I have been elected for well over three months now. The matter came almost two weeks before my election. But suddenly the judge just woke up from a slumber, to want to rush a case to represent certain interest.”

The governor-elect noted that it was regrettable that the process in court was disrupted.

He added: “It’s unfortunate. But don’t forget that the average man on the streets knows what they want and they are equally more enlightened than before, when somebody would just come, pay a judge somewhere for a backdoor judgment, to stall a process, to steal people’s mandate.”

Fayose added that he and his party was not opposed to trials. “But we want trials done through due process. What is the hurry for this judge? What is his interest?” he queried.

He alleged that the Chief Judge of Ekiti State was an interested party in the matter. “We have been told that he wants to assign the matter to himself. He is a clear member of the E-11; the petitioners. We want a judge who is ready to carry out his assignment as a judge; who is ready to respect the Constitution of Nigeria, to try matters by being fair to all concerned and be accountable to Nigerians,” he said.

Fayose enjoined the authorities at the judicial and executive level, to beam the searchlight on Ekiti and look beyond the propagandas of the political parties.

He said he had just arrived from an overseas trip on Tuesday night and that he decided to state his own side of what was going on because of its political implication.