EKITI State is set for more political turmoil after the 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers shunned a peace meeting by Governor Ayo Fayose at which he planned to offer them cash to drop impeachment proceedings against him.
Since assuming office in November last year, Governor Fayose has been at loggerheads with the assembly, refusing to recognise its leaders and declaring war on the 19 APC members. However, following the election of General Muhammadu Buhari as Nigeria's president on March 28, the 19 APC legislators in the house decided to commence impeachment proceedings against the governor.
They have already served the governor and his deputy Kolapo Olusola with impeachment notices for various offences. These include invasion of the house with thugs and miscreants, instigating an unconstitutional takeover of the house by seven legislators in contravention of Section 96(2) of the constitution, the prevention of the 19 APC members from performing legislative duties with the use of security agents and armed thugs and sponsoring an unlawful impeachment process.
Over the last few weeks, Ekiti State has been in turmoil as the governor has sought to use the police and local pressure groups to intimidate the lawmakers. Subsequently, the parliamentarians have fled the state and in a bid to end the spat between both sides, veteran lawyer Chief Afe Babalola tried to broker a peace meeting yesterday.
However, the meeting could not hold as the lawmaker shunned it fearing for their security, adding that Governor Fayose intended to arrest them if they set foot in Ado-Ekiti. Wole Olujobi, a spokesman for Adewale Omirin, the speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly, explained that while they appreciated the peace moves initiated by the eminent lawyer, surrounding circumstances made it clear the governor was not prepared for any resolution to the crisis.
He added that the security measures put in place for the peace parley revealed that the governor had a plan to attack and arrest some of them. Subsequently, the lawmakers proposed that the meeting be moved to Chief Babalola's Ibadan office offices, while members of the peace committee must be non-partisan elders.
According to the lawmakers, the fact that Governor Fayose had arranged for 200 policemen to be present at the meeting had given away his motives. They wondered why a peace meeting would include provision of security to escort them out of the state instead of escorting them to the House of Assembly to continue their legislative duties.
Speaker Omirin said: “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.”
Picking holes in the arrangement for the meeting, the lawmakers wondered why the governor was announcing the peace meeting intermittently on the state media while secretly mobilising Peoples Democratic Party members from the 16 local governments to storm the venue of the meeting. Listing their truce terms, they demanded the immediate removal of all illegal structures that aid the activities of thugs and miscreants in and around the Ekiti State House of Assembly premises, the restoration of the constitutionally recognised speaker Mr Omirin and other principal officers illegally impeached and unfettered access to and from the assembly to perform their legislative duties until the expiration of their tenure on June 6, 2015.
