Posted by From: Ifedayo Sayo, Ado-Ekiti on
EKITI State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has expressed deep concern over the allegation that he was planning to assassinate an Ibadan-based Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Afe Babalola.
EKITI State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has expressed deep concern over the allegation that he was planning to assassinate an Ibadan-based Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Afe Babalola.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Fayose, who is yet to arrive the state from his trip abroad, declared that the allegation by Babalola against him was unfounded and baseless, saying the elder statesman was being used against him by his detractors.
Babalola had in a letter to President Olusegun Obasanjo on the matter accused the governor of planning to assassinate him.
He said: "My problem with Fayose started shortly after the crisis that engulfed the state following an attempt on the life of the chairman of Ado Ekiti Local Council, Mr. Taye Fasubaa. The President had invited me and the parties directly involved to Abuja.
"I was just then returning from my holidays abroad, but His Excellency asked me to come. Because of the reverence I had and still do have for Obasanjo, I waived the requirements of my own comfort and went to Abuja.
"In the resolution of the crisis then, I ordered that neither party over-stepped its bounds any further in a way that would re-ignite the crisis. I stated that Fayose had no right to have deducted funds that ordinarily belonged to local councils. I never knew that by that I had hurt the governor where it pains him most.
"At the end of our deliberations that day, the governor assured our gathering that he would pay me a visit. Up till now he has not done so. And I am not bothered.
"A few months after the attempted murder of Fasubaa, Fayose embarked on a programme of transfer of part of the Ekiti State Secretariat at Ado-Ekiti to his home town, Afao-Ekiti, situated in another local council. The Ewi in Council and Ado Progressive Union objected. Because I supported my people and objected to the transfer of the secretariat from Ado-Ekiti, he descended heavily on the Ewi and myself, claiming that I was the person who influenced Obasanjo to oppose the transfer.
"I built and donated an auditorium to the Faculty of Law, University of Ado-Ekiti which was not accredited because of lack of necessary faculty buildings. I suggested to the vice-chancellor that since the President was coming to Ado-Ekiti, he should ensure that the project was commissioned by him. Fayose was furious at the suggestion. He boasted that it was over his dead body that the President would commission the project.
"However, His Excellency graciously commissioned the project which was an example par excellence of what Ekiti citizens should do for the state.
"Not only did he ensure that his state television and radio did not carry the news, he (the governor) vowed to deal with me. In fact, any newscaster who broadcasts any view different from his does so at his peril.
"After the visit of the President, Fayose began a series of television propaganda in which he referred to the visit of the President and referred to me as the useless elder statesman from Ado-Ekiti living at Ibadan who told lies to the President about his chicken programme and who will be eliminated," Babalola alleged.
But Fayose, who claimed that he was rattled by the allegation, said he was not prepared to join issues with the elder statesman, pointing out that the press war against him by his detractors would not count in the 2007 elections.
His words: "This press war will not distract me from doing the good work the people elected me to do. I want to charge everybody to have the interest of the state at heart and work for the good of our state.
"I am praying that the peace of God will rule the life of Chief Afe Babalola. It is not in my interest that he should die now. This accusation, I believe, is part of the price of leadership that I must bear as the father of all. I will continue to have respect for him and despite the accusation I still hold him in high esteem.
"However, he should appreciate that the interest of Ekiti supersedes any other interest and should not allow himself to be used against me. He should continue to be a nationalist," the governor said.
Fayose wondered why he should be accused of planning to assassinate the legal luminary when Babalola is not a politician struggling for power with him.
The governor said: "The plan of the opposition is to distract and discredit me ahead of 2007 elections, but let me tell them, this press war will not take them far in politics because the people of Ekiti are at peace with me."
Fayose said the day of reckoning would soon come and all the controversies against him would die because the masses were only interested in service delivery, which had made him the toast of the ordinary man in the state.