All eyes are now set on the Supreme Court as it delivers judgment today in the Ekiti governorship crisis. in whose favour do you think today's judgement will be. Kayode Fayemi or Segun Oni?
All eyes are now set on the Supreme Court as it
delivers judgment this Friday in the Ekiti
governorship crisis, writes Toba Suleiman
From a critical observation of litigations trailing
the conduct of governorship elections in the
political history of the country, it might be safe to
conclude that Ekiti State has recorded the
longest period in the pursuit of justice over
electoral matters.
This is so, in view of the fact that the electoral
battle which began with the conduct of the 2007
governorship poll and spilled over to the 2009
rerun election in the state is yet to be over, as
people anxiously await a verdict that will
probably put an end to the dragging litigation.
Former governor of the state, Mr. Segun Oni,
whose election in the April 2007 governorship
election was truncated by the verdict of the
Court of Appeal sitting in Ilorin, Kwara State, on
October 15, 2010, is currently at the Supreme
Court, to ‘reclaim his mandate’ from the
incumbent governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
The Supreme Court judgment which is expected
to come up this Friday, May 31, after the appeal
court in Ado-Ekiti, struck out the prayers of the
petitioner, would probably put a permanent seal
on the struggle. Oni, a governorship candidate of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the
appeal sought a reversal of his removal from
office because the judgment was in flagrant
violation of the rule of law.
But, the appeal court struck out the case on the
basis that the court could not reverse itself. It
also added that the issue of bias raised by Oni in
his appeal should have been raised earlier during
the trial.
Not satisfied, Oni headed to the Supreme Court,
where he is seeking an order to set aside the
decision of the lower court delivered on Monday
27, February, 2012, as well as an order setting
aside the judgment of court of appeal, Ilorin,
delivered on October 15, 2010 which nullified his
election as the governor of Ekiti State.
In addition, he also prays an order directing
theSpeaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly
to take over the governance of Ekiti State
pending the hearing and determination of the
appeal. The Appellant, consequent on the above,
also seeks the nullification of the judgment of the
panel constituted and presided over by Justice
Isa Ayo Salami, for breaching his right to fair
hearing on the basis of likelihood of bias.
According to him, by the provisions of Section 22
of the Supreme Court Act, Cap S15 of the laws of
the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, “The
Supreme Court generally shall have full
jurisdiction over the whole proceedings as if the
proceedings had been instituted and prosecuted
as a Court of first instance.
Whichever way the axe falls on Friday, it would
be on record that given this peculiarity, Ekiti
State is one of the states to fully test the
strength of the legal process across the whole
strata of the legal cadre. Whether or not the
judgment goes in the way of the petitioner, a
point has been made.
Expectedly, however, there are two sides to a
coin. While the PDP members are hopeful that
the ruling would go their way, the ruling Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) forbade any such thing
and described the PDP expectation as building a
castle in the sky.
But the recriminations that the issue had elicited
have constituted concern for the people of the
state. Politicians in the state have started to beat
the war drums, throwing allegations and
counter-allegations to each other of attempts to
create chaos ahead of the Friday’s Supreme
Court judgment.
It is important to put on record that since the
coming on board of the Fayemi administration on
October 16, 2010, the state has enjoyed relative
peace and tranquility, while government has
focused on the development of the state across
the 16 council areas of the state. But the
serenity since enjoyed has broken down in the
last few weeks. Public Relations Officer (PRO) of
the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mr. Tunde
Adeleke, who fired the first salvo, said the party
had uncovered plots by some members of the
opposition to start attacking the personalities of
top government officials in the State.
According to the party’s spokesman, the plot
was hatched at a meeting held at the residence
of a former National Assembly member from Ekiti
North Senatorial District by chieftains of the PDP,
where they planned to unleash terror and cause
mayhem in the State. “They wanted to do this in
cahoots with their willing tools that are ready to
play the spoiler, in order to cause a state of
emergency to be declared in our peaceful state
so that the Fayemi administration will be
distracted and truncated.
“They planned to physically attack and if
possible, assassinate top members of the
government while others would be blackmailed
in a well-orchestrated plan to cause fear,
disaffection and division among top officials of
the government. Part of this plan is to print and
paste posters of such officials portraying them as
planning to contest for the gubernatorial position
of the state in order to cause disaffection within
government and the party.
“The transformation of Ekiti State by the Fayemi
administration is a miracle to members of the
opposition who could not do same when they
had the opportunity to govern the State albeit
illegally. The opposition is so pained by the good
works of the Fayemi administration that it has
become a big problem convincing Ekiti people
not to support the government that has so much
transformed their lives; therefore, they have
resorted to personality attacks and lies,” he said.
But this alarm had raised the curiosity of many.
Even, the security operatives could not provide
answers the alarm raised by the ruling party.
This is more so, that in some months past, such
neither came from the ruling party nor the
opposition.
Sensing the trend, the PDP stoutly defended
itself and called for the intervention of the
security operatives to investigate the allegation
raised by ACN. The PDP insisted that the State
Security Service should be allowed to investigate
the matter on alleged compromise of the police
in the State, which the party alleged was
working in connivance with the ruling party.
Director of Communication of the PDP, Chief
Gboyega Aribisogan, countered that it was the
ACN that was raising thugs from each ward to
create confusion before the May 31 Supreme
Court judgment to misdirect the Justices on the
matter.
Aribisogan maintained that the Police
Commissioner in the State, Mr. Sotonye Wakama,
ought to have informed the party of the
allegation raised by ACN, having been earlier
informed by the ruling party before going to the
press, saying it was a confirmation that the
police have been compromised.
Consequently, the PDP filed a petition signed by
the party’s Secretary, Dr. Tope Aluko and
addressed to the Commissioner of Police, to
investigate the alleged plan by the party to
manufacture/print PDP uniform/attire across the
state. It also alleged that the government had
directed some political office holders to paste
posters of fake ACN gubernatorial aspirants all
over the State to dent the image of PDP and
create impression that the party is planning to
destabilise the State.
The petition described this as the focus of ACN
propaganda to destabilise the state, set a
message across to the nation as if the state was
on fire and pressurise the judiciary in a way to
suggest that the judgment was known to be in
favour of PDP. Describing the development as
part of moves to destabilise the state, PDP called
on the security operatives to investigate the ACN
claims, and ensure that the state remains
peaceful before, during and after the May 31,
2013 judgment.
As the ding-dong affair continues, there is the
need for politicians from both parties need to
observe decorum in their activities and not throw
the state into needless political upheaval.
Observers therefore advised that the collective
interest of the state should be overriding as
against party or personal agenda.
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