• Governor accepts to pay lawmakers entitlements

THE peace negotiation initiated by elders of Ekiti State led by Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), though yet to resolve the crisis between Governor Ayo Fayose and the 19 lawmakers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State House of Assembly, is beginning to show signs of interests by the conflicting state actors to dialogue on a generally acceptable terms of reconciliation.
Chief Babalola, founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, had convened a truce meeting at the Afe Babalola University between the governor and the lawmakers, penultimate week, which the governor attended but the legislators refused to attend in protest of certain suspicions and skepticisms. The absence protest of the lawmakers eventually provided certain indices emanating from their demands that may facilitate the negotiation and reconciliation process.


The 19 APC lawmakers had complained of selective terms of peace dialogue proposed for the meeting to the exclusion of the substantive issue of the conflict in the state. The APC legislators expressed discontentment over the arrangement to provide security to escort them in and out of the state for the purpose of the meeting without inclusion their resumption of duties in the House. “We cannot hold any meeting on the basis of monetary settlement in isolation of the consideration of the constitutional breaches by the governor. It is amazing that the truce terms will not include resumption of our duties, but just to settle us monetarily and escorting us out of Ekiti State,” the lawmakers had declared in a statement conveying their protest.
The legislators, accordingly, declared their own terms for the reconciliation dialogue which included that the meeting be rescheduled to hold at the Ibadan office of Chief Babalola, in Oyo State which is a more neutral venue for deliberation between them and the governor. They also advised that elders superintending the negotiation committee must be unbiased and non-partisan. The lawmakers gave further conditions to include immediate removal of all illegal structures that aid the activities of thugs and miscreants in and around the Ekiti State House of Assembly premises; restoration of the constitutionally recognised Speaker (Omirin), and other principal officers illegally impeached back to their lawful positions; and the 19 APC legislators should be allowed uninterrupted access to and fro the Ekiti State House of Assembly to perform their legislative duties until the expiration of their tenure on June 6, 2015. They also put forward as terms for negotiation, the stoppage of political arrests and vendetta against the APC lawmakers. They maintained that the governor should facilitate these demands within a very short period to allow the truce meeting to hold as soon as possible.
The 19 APC lawmakers were said to have commended the elders in the state who facilitated the failed meeting, encouraging them to review holding the meeting at a neutral and safer venue.
The demands of the 19 lawmakers are germane and also clear terms of restoring peace in the state. They are fundamental issues the Ekiti Elders who have volunteered to mediate in the crisis should consider crucial to resolving the conflict. Apparently, the terms for the negotiation have already resolved the impasse even before going to the round table which may turn a platform for exchanging pleasantries and restoring consensus building in the governance of the state.
Governor Fayose was gathered to have accepted to shift ground on contentious issues if that would restore peace in Ekiti State. He was also learnt to have accepted to pay the 19 APC lawmakers their salaries and allowances which were suspended since last year when the crisis broke out. The governor was cited to have declared: “I am ready to shift ground to see that they finish their tenure successfully and pay them all their dues. I'm ready to work with them and make them happy.”
Other Ekiti Elders disclosed to be involved in the mediation for peace in the state include Chief Deji Fasuan, Chairman, Committee for the Creation of Ekiti State; Chief Ayo Ogunlade, a former Minister of National Planning; Dr. Kunle Olajide, a delegate to the National Conference 2014. Right Honourable Dele Olugbemi Speaker, of the House of Assembly who is steering the crisis was said to be in attendance at the meeting at Afe Babalola University.
There is crystal potential danger inherent in the nine days between May 29 and June 6, 2015, when the APC would have taken over the Federal Government and restructure the security network, including transferring Commissioners of Police in various states and the expiration of the tenure of the current legislature in Ekiti State. The inherent danger will be such that Governor Fayose may be weaken in security control, essentially, in influencing the Commissioner of Police in the state, who may even work against him relying on orders from above, then, make the state a safe haven for the 19 APC lawmakers to achieve their purpose. Fayose must also come to terms with the realities that while the APC lawmakers in the state might have sacrificed everything all through the period of the crisis, those nine days are so critical within which tremendous damages could be done and he might not accomplish the over three years of his tenure that are still at stake.
For the mediators, they must insist on watertight agreement between the governor and the APC lawmakers on the truce or whatever tradeoff of patronage they may agree in possibly returning to the status quo ante before the crisis erupted. The governor must at this point share his pride in recognition of the pride of other parties and allow the peace deal to be concluded urgently.
The 19 APC lawmakers had filed an application on April 7, 2015, before a Federal High Court, Lagos, to discontinue the suit they filed against Governor Fayose. Accordingly, the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos last Thursday struck out the suit.
Justice Saliu Saidu had in striking out the suit further awarded a cost of N100,000 against the 19 APC lawmakers in favour of the respondents.
The 19 APC lawmakers had filed the suit marked FHC/L/CS/1823/14 in December 2015 challenging the impeachment of Adewale Omirin and Adetunji Orisalade as the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Ekiti State Assembly, respectively. Omirin and Orisalade were impeached on November 20, 2014 by seven PDP members of the House of Assembly.
Other respondents in the suit included Speaker Dele Olugbemi, Deputy Speaker Olayinka Abeni, the Inspector General of Police, the Commissioner of Police in Ekiti State and the Department of State Service. Others are are the three commissioners cleared for appointment under the new leadership of the Ekiti Assembly as well as the five other PDP lawmakers in the House.
It was gathered that the case made little or no progress since December 10, 2014 when Justice Saidu declined to grant the APC lawmakers an interim injunction restraining the House led Olugbemi, from further carrying on with legislative functions.
Furthermore, Dr. Olusola Eleka and four other APC House of Representatives members in Ekiti State were said to have commenced preparations for the 2018 governorship election hen the tenure of Fayose is expected to elapse. Under the aegis of Ekiti Restoration Group, (in the APC), the four APC members in the House of Representatives, Bamidele Faparusi, Bimbo Daramola, Ife Arowosoge and Oyetunde Ojo, in a joint statement in Ado Ekiti, were said to have acknowledged that all was not well with the APC in Ekiti State; they had declared their determination and commitment to work with all party stakeholders to address once and for all, all contending issues within the party, so that the APC could bounce back to reckoning in the State. They were said not to be interested in the impeachment of Fayose.
These are obvious open window for peace available to Fayose before May 29. Many stakeholders in the state have also been expressing the need for sacrifices to be made in the interests of the people Ekiti State.

Source: http://www.nationaldailyng.com/news/latest-news/3872-19-apc-lawmakers-insist-on-comprehensive-truce-with-fayose