Police beef up security as 19 lawmakers plan to impeach Fayose

• Minister condemns plan
• I derived my mandate from Ekiti people, says governor
• Omirin asks gov to respond to alleged misconduct
• APC charges police to arrest suspects over attack on office
THE Ekiti State Police Command yesterday said that adequate security has been provided to protect lives and property and also ensure that the tension generated by plans to impeach Governor Ayo Fayose did not turn the state into a theatre of war.
The 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) members in the House of Assembly had served a notice of impeachment on the governor, alleging gross misconduct.
The Commissioner of Police, Taiwo Lakanu, who ordered the closure of the Assembly last week Wednesday to avert bloodshed, yesterday said 24 hours security surveillance had been put in place, particularly around the state House of Assembly and other hotspots.
He said: “I have placed security personnel on alert while high visibility patrol is being conducted around Ado-Ekiti.
“We knew the tension generated must have caused some apprehension, but we are being proactive because the security of lives and property and general peace of the people is our topmost priority.
“We are leaving no stone unturned to ensure the safety of our citizens and for everybody to go about their normal business without fear or harassment.
But the Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has described his governorship as a mandate freely and wholeheartedly given by Ekiti people, saying: “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, Mr. Lere Olayinka, the governor also urged the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed, to sustain his stand not allowing the use of the Judiciary to change the outcome of elections.
Responding, the factional Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin, yesterday advised Governor Fayose to respond to impeachment notice served on him instead of grandstanding and hiding from the public.
Omirin said the impeachment notice served him is a constitutional matter and not about theatrics to play down serious issues of the law raised in the letter to the governor, adding that instead of staying in hiding to evade justice, it is better to live with the reality that the rule of law has come to stay in the country.
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 June 21, 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.”
In another development, the APC in Ekiti State has called on the police to arrest suspects over attack on its party’s secretariat last Wednesday.
The party in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, praised the police for their intervention, saying that they should do more to arrest the suspects who were quartered in the Government House.
The statement said: “Even though we have our reservations on the conduct of the Commissioner of Police in the last few months, his handling of this incident is commendable.
“It is heart-warming that the Commissioner of Police, Taiwo Lakanu, could personally go to the Government House to arrest two of the thugs that are officially quartered there and seized one of the vehicles used for the operation. They were part of those who attacked our office, but they were many who carried out the dastardly act and they all sheltered in the Government House. The thugs are well-known to the police and everybody because the same gang carried out repeated attacks. It is better to arrest them before Saturday’s House of Assembly elections so that they don’t harass voters.
Besides, the Minister of State for Works, Mr. Dayo Adeyeye, has warned the APC and its members in Ekiti State to tread cautiously so as not to endanger democracy in the country, saying: “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 it was necessary that the President-elect, Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, should call members of APC in Ekiti State to order so that they don’t by their desperation for power in the state truncate democracy on Nigeria.
He also said it was disheartening that APC members in Ekiti State were capitalising on Buhari’s victory to cause crisis in the state, adding: “If President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP had behaved the way APC people are behaving in Ekiti State now, the country would have been in chaos by now.”
Speaking further, Governor Fayose said: “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 at my inauguration, as he was still hoping that on October 16, 2014, a court order would be got 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 had 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 Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.
“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 who they desire 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.”
Adeyeye, who described the purported impeachment notice as laughable, said legislative businesses are conducted inside the hallowed chamber of the House of Assembly and not online.