Former Governor of Ekiti state, Mr Ayodele Fayose, who reported to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Abuja on Tuesday, on the commission’s invitation, is still in its custody.
But, the commission has declined comment on the issue, preferring the media await developments on it.
Head of Media and Publicity of the commission, Mr Wilson Uwajeren, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abuja that there was “nothing to report at the moment”.
“If there is anything, I will get across to you,” he said.
While reporting at the EFCC on Tuesday, Fayose had said that he was there to keep his promise to honour the commission’s invitation and to respond to any allegation against him.
The former governor, whose tenure ended on Monday, was accompanied to the EFCC by Rivers Governor, Mr Nyesom Wike and former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode.
He had at the commission’s office said
“I am here in line with my promise that I will be here on the 16th of October.”
A senior lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), had told NAN on Thursday that the EFCC had no right to keep Fayose beyond 24 hours without charging him.
He said that it was either that the commission charged the former governor to court or free him so as not to foul the law.
According to the human rights lawyer, the EFCC has no right to keep him for over 24 hours.
He said
“If they have done that by obtaining a Magistrate Court’s order that will be in the form of a holding charge, which has been declared unconstitutional and illegal by the Supreme Court.
“Holding charge is illegal. It is unconstitutional.’’
Ozekhome said that the section of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) permitting a magistrate to detain a suspect for 14 days was illegal.
He explained that any action outside the provisions of Section 35 of the Constitution, which specifically provided for 24 hours, was illegal and unconstitutional.
He said that the ACJA allowed for detention of a suspect for 14 days, but that Section 35 of the Constitution made it clear that a person could only be detained for 24 hours.
“So, when there is a clash between the statute, like the ACJA, and the Constitution, the Constitution prevails by virtue of Section 1(3).
“If they have gotten an order for two weeks from the magistrate court, it is unconstitutional,” Ozekhome stressed.
He, however, disclosed that efforts had begun to secure the release of Fayose.
According to Ozekhome, Fayose’s lawyers are already taking steps to enforce his fundamental human rights by getting him released.
“Yes, his lawyers will go to court to enforce his fundamental human rights.”
NAN
The outgoing Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, has said he is ready to face the investigation team of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
According to a media report, the EFCC had already set up a special team to grill the governor for allegedly receiving over N1.2bn from a former National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki (retd.) through a former Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro.
Fayose, who said he had a clear conscience, told the commission to expect him in its office on October 16, a day after the expiration of his tenure.
“He who has clear conscience fears no foe. The EFCC should still expect me at 1pm next Tuesday,” he said.
Fayose spoke on Wednesday during the inauguration of a new school he built in his Afao-Ekiti home country as part of his legacies projects in the state.
At the event, he asked workers to collect their outstanding four months’ salaries from the incoming governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi. He said the funds he could have used to pay them as expected had been withheld by the Federal Government ahead of Fayemi’s resumption.
“They paid other states Paris Refund, they didn’t pay Ekiti; Fayemi should help me pay the money.
“They didn’t pay Ekiti N2.2bn Budget Support Fund; my promise is fulfilled but the money is in the hands of the government, they should help me to pay.”
The governor told the gathering that he did not borrow money from anywhere to fund any of the projects.
“With all these legacy projects, I didn’t borrow any dime. I do not owe any debt, if they say I owe, they should show evidence of the transaction.
“Besides, no governor can borrow without the knowledge of the Ministry of Finance and the Debt Management Office.”
Fayose urged the incoming administration not to neglect the school or abandon any legacy project. He said the school named Gifted Academy International would receive students from Ekiti and outside on 50:50 ratio.
“The school is equipped with modern equipment, laboratories, furniture and Closed-Circuit Television for surveillance,” he said.
Gov. Ayodele Fayose said on Tuesday said that all the ongoing capital projects will be completed and inaugurated before vacating office on Oct. 16.
The News Agency of Nigeria, (NAN) reports that the governor, made the promise while speaking at 2018 edition of the Annual Udiroko Festival in Ado Ekiti, the state capital.
The governor said he had resolved to complete all ongoing projects in consonance with his promise while being sworn-in for a second term in office not to abandon any project embarked upon.
According to him, his critics who were allegedly saying he embarked on employment of new hands into the state public service at the tail end of his tenure should also have asked him not to continue with projects he started.
He listed the capital projects so far completed and ongoing to include the One-Kilometre overhead bridge in Ado Ekiti, the new state High Court complex, the new Governor’s office and the new Ministry of Finance complex.
He listed others to include the new Ultra-Modern Kings Market in Ado Ekiti and the Amphi Theatre, the Banquet Hall at the Ewi’s palace and the dualization of virtually all the 16 Local Government Headquarters among others.
NAN reports that he had, at about 3:00p.m arrived the venue into the waiting hands of cheering crowd of residents singing his praises.
Fayose said there was no known law in the country that says a sitting governor must stop performing the functions attached to his office once his party has an election decided against it.
He told the gathering that the about 200- lock up shops at the new Kings market would be shared to willing traders before the end of the week.
He pledged that those traders initially displaced as a result of the fire incident that razed the old market would be given preferential treatment.
NAN reports that the governor appreciated the people of Ado Ekiti for standing by his party during the last governorship poll, regretting, however, that certain forces allegedly did not allow their votes to count.
He assured them that the ruling party in the state led him would use all normal and legal means to reclaim the stolen mandate.
In his response, the Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oba Adeyemo Adejugbe thanked the governor for what he termed as “sudden turn around” of the state capital, saying close to 80 per cent of the projects carried out by Fayose during his second term in office were concentrated in Ado Ekiti, thereby making his reign memorable.
Also speaking, legal luminary and founder of Afe Babalola University, Chief Afe Babalola, who is also a leading son of the ancient city, expressed delight at the volume of the people that trooped out to celebrate the festival.
Earlier in a welcome address, the Chairman, National Caretaker Committee of the Ado Ekiti Progressive Union, Chief Bayo Ogunmodimu said the Udiroko Festival marked the beginning of another traditional year for the sons and daughters of Ado Ekiti.
He said that it was also being used as a rallying point and unifying factor for all age groups and all local associations and clubs in the town.
He thanked the state government for the modern structures erected in the palace and wished the outgoing governor well in his future endeavors.
NAN
The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose has described Saturday’s by-election in Rivers State for Port Harcourt Constituency III State Assembly seat as “another sad reality that votes of Nigerians will not be allowed to count at the 2019 election as the elections will be held at gun-point to achieve predetermined results”.
INEC has suspended the election, citing “widespread violence”.
According to the Governor, despite the legacy of free, fair and credible conduct of elections bequeathed to the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria is in a state of anarchy, because of the desperation of a few people to retain power.
“Even INEC could not but point it out in its press statement announcing suspension of the election that miscreants and hoodlums accompanied by heavily armed security personnel in uniform stormed polling units, destroying and carting away electoral materials as well as holding electoral officers hostage.
“We thought that we have gone past this era of manipulated electoral process after the 2015 general elections, which brought the APC and President Buhari to power, the country has been taken back to the Stone Age by merging APC with INEC, police, military and other security agencies.”
The Ekiti Governor called for the arrest and prosecution of the policemen that took part in the shootings and snatching of election materials in Rivers State, saying
“there are pictorial evidence of the policemen on the social media, the police authority must not sweep this under the carpet as usual.”
He said if an election in just 142 polling units was so militarized, with gunshots everywhere,
“time has come for Nigerians to rise up to this challenge of making sure that the democracy that they fought for is not destroyed by those whose only interest is to retain power in 2019.”
The Governor said;
“I warned Nigerians in 2015 and when this reign of tyranny started, I kept warning. Now; free, fair and credible election is dead in Nigeria and election has become what the ruling party must ‘win’ at gun-point.”
He challenged President Buhari to stop pretending as if he knew nothing about the electoral malfeasance going on under his watch, adding that
“It is the interest of the President that is being protected and it is a disservice to a man who is close to 80 years to allow his country to be turned to a war zone just because he is seeking reelection.”
Members of the Ekiti State House of Assembly have said they have confidence in the State governor, Ayodele Fayose.
The lawmakers also distanced themselves from the alleged plot to impeach the governor following the electoral victory of the All Progressives Congress candidate in the July 14 governorship election, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
The Speaker of the House, Kola Oluwawole, had on Thursday raised the alarm over an alleged invasion of the Assembly premises by riot policemen in order to pave the way for the three APC members of the House to reconvene a week after the members had gone on recess.
He accused the APC lawmakers of forging the signature of the clerk, Mr. Tola Esan, in a letter purportedly written to request police protection.
But speaking after paying a solidarity visit to the governor on Friday, the Spokesperson for the Assembly, Dr. Samuel Omotoso, on behalf of the 23 members said they remained loyal to Fayose.
The chairman, House Committee on Information, said the Peoples Democratic Party lawmakers were fully in support of the move by the party’s candidate, Prof. Kolapo Olusola, to reclaim his mandate.
He said,
“We are here on a solidarity visit to the Governor and to show our displeasure to the stealing of the mandate freely given to Prof kolapo Olusola. We also want to use this medium to register our displeasure to the illegality being perpetrated by security agencies threatening to make the state ungovernable.
“As you can see, we are 23 members and 21 is present here. Mrs. Titi Owolabi is not here because she is bereaved, and one of us travelled overseas. We are 26 members; three are on the other side. We are united and irrevocably committed to the cause of Fayose.
“We are solidly behind him and our party the PDP. We support the decision of the party to go to court to retrieve the stolen mandate and also to tell the whole world that if 23 members are on the same page, we want to see how they want to use three members to perpetuate illegality in the state.
Governor-elect of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, on Thursday, hinted that his administration would probe the financial records of outgoing Governor Ayo Fayose when he assumes office.
Fayemi, while fielding questions from State House Correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari behind-closed-doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, also said contrary to reports, his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), never engaged in vote-buying in the July 14 governorship election in the state.
He explained that the essence of looking into the financial records of the state was not targeted at the out-going administration of Governor Fayose, but to find out why the government was unable to pay salaries of workers.
He said it was not about an individual but about the government so as to not make the mistakes of the outgoing administration.
According to him, “Well, l think we need to remove this election from personalities. This was an election that we fought on issues and it will be irresponsible on my part to come here and say that we will not examine what transpired in the last four years in the manner of government.
“What was received in Ekiti State and the expenditures in that period, why were we not able to pay salaries in the state. These issues should be examined in the interest of good governance.
“It is not about probing Fayose, probing Eleka etc, it is about not repeating the mistakes of the past and giving our people good government. So, we will also involve in looking at what transpired in the last four years.”
The former minister of Mines and Steel, said his transitional committee were already working on how his administration will hit the ground running by looking at the assets and liabilities of the state.
According to Fayemi, “We are in the business of putting the government together. We are in the transition stage we beginning to look into the record of the state, its assets and liabilities and we expect the outgoing government to extend its hands of cooperation to us.
“We will engage also all of our professionals to ensure that we deliver good governance to Ekiti people. That is what they voted for and that is what we intend to give. So, basically, this three months will be used for this purpose.”
On why the APC the Ekiti polls, Fayemi said, “What sold us to the people is really the track records of our commitments to social investment, good government, transparency in government, extensive infrastructure and community involvement. These were the things.
“Everywhere we went during the campaign, we were able to show what we did for each community. All of our 132 communities, there were projects in all of them and they knew that our government was regular in payment of salaries, support to a range of the weak and vulnerable in the society and that was really what sold us.
“We have always been interested in seeing that our people live a decent life, a life without hunger, with social support and that is why we were paying social security benefits to the elderly. We provided youths graduate scheme for the recent graduates, provided support for the communities.
“For us, we never saw stomach infrastructure from any pedestrian manner that the current administration has lived it up to. For us, it is about total development of our people, human and capital development in education, health care, in social services and infrastructure development.
“It is total service we focused in. We increased salaries three times so that people could put food on their table in four years. That was why we provided range of allowances for the workers.
“There was a huge difference between what we did and the present administration with lack of salaries, heartless, despair and despondency. We are restoring the values and reclaiming our mandate.”
On the alleged vote-buying by the APC, he said, “I haven’t any substantive evidence of allegations of vote buying and intimidation. In the place where l voted, there was no vote buying anywhere.
“As far as our party is concerned, we did not engage in that, it is not our style. We won the election fair and square and it was an election that we fought on issues and not on the basis of any vote buying. So, whoever has any evidence of that should present it to an independently verifiable audience.”
Also speaking, the Kebbi State governor, Atiku Bagudu said that the Ekiti State governorship election was free, fair and credible.
He said, “Our party leaders, including President Muhamamdu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the National leaders, stakeholders have all done their jobs including the Ekiti people themselves.
“We had a vey successful election, it was quite peaceful and Ekiti on the day the election results were declared, there was jubilation and we congratulate them. We thank INEC and the security despite the misconstrued reports, they provided their best. I have seen many who said this is the most peaceful election we have had.
“Let people campaign on issues and here we have a candidate who was humble and despite what happened before, he was humble to say in 2014 that if that was the wishes of Ekiti people, I will not go to court. Ekiti people have once again delivered their wishes and anyone who loves Ekiti should respect their wishes.”
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, has declared that what he called ‘the Edo State rigging template’ which the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, who is a former governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, plans to use during the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State would fail.
The governor, who spoke in Ado-Ekiti, through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, also dismissed a statement credited to Oshiomhole, that the PDP is jittery about the coming election.
“Oshiomole’s secret plan to use his fraudulent Edo template in Ekiti will never work and it will attract injurious consequences. This is because Ekiti people are resolutely determined to resist rigging right on the spot.
He also dismissed the APC’s allegation that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), rigged out the All Progressives Congress (APC), candidate, Dr. Kayode Fayemi in 2014, noting that the election was free and fair as attested to by both local and international observers.
He said,
“If Adams Oshiomhole still has problems with that election, he should address his misgivings to the US and the international community. Besides, the APC challenged the election up to the Supreme Court but lost. Is Adams Oshiomhole disputing and despising the highest court of the land? It must be noted that he himself became governor by the supreme court judgment”, he said.
Fayose added,
“The PDP is raising the alarm because of tell-tale signs that the APC and Fayemi are plotting to rig the election. The statements by top APC leaders including its former chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun that they must capture Ekiti, by all means, are very instructive in this regard.
“Nigerians witnessed the blatant rigging of Ondo and Edo governorship elections by the APC. In Ondo, it was shameless vote buying. In Edo, they stopped vote counting when it was clear PDP was winning and changed the results overnight. Seeing these, who will ask us to stay stupid?
“Adams Oshiomhole was the mastermind of Edo rigging. He is only calling Fayose the name that rightly belongs to him (Oshiomhole),” he said and accused Oshiomhole of double standards and colluding with former President Olusegun Obasanjo to enrich himself at the expense of Nigerian workers, while he was President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).
“In case Adams Osh- iomhole does not know, his records of double-dealing and collusion with ex-President Obasanjo, as NLC President while deceiving workers and the suffering masses are in the public domain.
“This fake comrade hobnobbed with Obasanjo in the night but came out in the day to deceive workers with empty rhetoric. In the end, Obasanjo hiked fuel price many times under Adams Oshiomhole’s nose.
“Nigerians have not forgotten the poor widow, he told to go and die. This contrasts sharply with Fayose’s empathy for the poor and the down-trodden. Has Oshiomhole at any time spoken against the murderous herdsmen even when they killed his people in Edo state?”
Fayose also vowed that the Ekiti State Anti Open Grazing Act has come to stay, saying,
“We sound it loud and clear that we will not abrogate our anti-grazing law, the same way we will resist APC agenda to take Ekiti by force by manipulating the coming election.
“APC is factionalized right under Oshiomhole’s nose. If he does not consider that enough trouble, he will meet his Waterloo in Ekiti come July 14 when Ekiti people will seal his running mouth for him”, Fayose said.
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has said Nigeria does not need President Muhammadu Buhari as her leader in 2019, noting that Monday’s declaration of reelection bid by the President was an ambition dead on arrival.
The Ekiti State governor also noted that if President Buhari is re-elected, he would kill the country.
Governor Fayose spoke to newsmen in Ado-Ekiti on Monday on the President’s intention, through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi.
He said if President Buhari was unable to read the handwriting on the wall and know when to call it quit, Nigerians would show him the exit door in 2019 by voting him out of office.
Fayose opined that the president was not only too old to lead the country well, he had bungled the opportunity given him by his woeful performance.
“That ambition is dead on arrival. We don’t want grandpa as president anymore. Nigeria does not deserve a Buhari as president in 2019. Buhari is old and tired. When people don’t know when to take their leave and say bye, Nigerians will show them the exit door.
“He has done more harm to this country. His ambition is a means by which Nigerians will tell him good riddance to bad rubbish when they boot him out of office. He is an easy candidate to defeat in the poll for he has failed woefully.
“He has failed in all fronts. He has failed in his so-called fight against corruption, he has failed in the economic front. He has not done well in term of security. People are being killed in large number daily and Nigerians have no confidence in him.
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