•Fingers Amaechi, two Supreme Court justices as conspirators
Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti
Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has accused his predecessor and the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, of plotting to stage a comeback as the governor of the state via judicial coup.
Fayose, said his predecessor was allegedly working in cahoots with leaders and stalwarts of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti and Abuja, to return to power through the backdoor by way of enlisting a section of the Judiciary to revisit the 2014 governorship election in the state.
The governor said this was the only option available to Fayemi upon realising that his ambition would suffer a colossal setback if he dares plunge into the APC primary, alleging that some of the political foot soldiers of the former governor had deserted him.
The governor, who made the allegation in Ado Ekiti yesterday during a press conference he tagged: ‘Through the Ballot, Not the Backdoor,” boasted that the people of state and noble people across the country would truncate the plot from materialising.
Fayemi however, said he won’t dignify his successor with any response, saying the allegation was not new to him.
Fayose said: “In the last few days, Fayemi has been boasting that the Supreme Court will be made to review its judgment of April 14, 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.
“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 backdoor, 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 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 national daily 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 governor queried: “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.
“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, Niyi Adebayo.
“As I address you today, there is credible information that Fayemi has provided funds 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.”
Substantiating the fact that Fayemi’s case has no root in the constitution, Fayose said: “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. Gabriel Torwua Suswam.
“Most 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.
“We are also concerned that allegation made by a Supreme Court judge, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, that the Minister of Transportation and former Hovernor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, begged him to ensure that Fayose’s election was set aside and another election ordered for his friend, Fayemi to contest was ignored,” he concluded.
