Posted by By RAZAQ BAMIDELE (Lagos) and TUNDE RAHEEM (Akure) on
The Speaker, Ekiti State House of Assembly, Mr Friday Aderemi, has vowed that there is no going back on the impeachment proceedings instituted against the governor, Ayo Fayose and his deputy, Mrs Biodun Olujimi, accused of corruption and misconduct.
The Speaker, Ekiti State House of Assembly, Mr Friday Aderemi, has vowed that there is no going back on the impeachment proceedings instituted against the governor, Ayo Fayose and his deputy, Mrs Biodun Olujimi, accused of corruption and misconduct.
Reacting to an apparent lull in official activities in the state since Friday when the impeachment notice was served on the duo, the speaker said the seeming inaction was not an indication of backing out of the process but merely a breather to enable Fayose and Olujimi prepare their defence and respond to the allegations contained in the impeachment notice.
"The constitutional mandatory 14-day ultimatum has to be observed. When the ultimatum lapses, whether we received a response from the governor or not, we would move to the next stage of the process. After the expiration of the ultimatum, the chief judge of the state would be mandated to set up a seven-man panel to investigate the allegations," Aderemi told Daily Sun over the telephone last night.
He spoke amid heightened tension in Ado-Ekiti and other parts of the state where protest rallies by anti and pro-Fayose groups continued for the third day running, forcing authorities to beef up security in the troubled "Fountain of knowledge."
The governor himself confirmed receiving the impeachment notice at about 11.00a.m. Tuesday.
Talking tough, Fayose, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi, indicated that he might go to court to challenge the exercise, even as he boasted that it would fail.
Aderemi who attributed the people's anxiety to lack of constitutional knowledge of the process maintained that there was no cause for anxiety stressing that "things are going on according to the dictate of the law."
Reacting to insinuations that the lives of the lawmakers might not be safe, the speaker waxed spiritual: "God is our saviour. Even if you are in the midst of lions and other dangerous reptiles, the moment you are convinced that what you are doing is in the best interest of mankind, you won't have any cause to fear anything."
Adelusi, speaking in the state capital on Tuesday said the embattled governor's detractors behind the impeachment saga would soon bury their heads in shame.
Adelusi indicated that his boss might go to court to challenge the impeachment exercise. Meanwhile the secretary of the Action Congress (AC) in the state Mr. Biodun Akin-Fasae has warned the judiciary not to truncate the impeachment exercise of Governor Fayose.
Fasae, while speaking with newsmen in Ado-Ekiti Tuesday said that he had uncovered plans by some state governors who are instigating Fayose to go to court, adding that plans had already been perfected to throw away the whole exercise.
He warned that there would be chaos if such plans materialised.
The last 48 hours in the state witnessed rallies by pro and anti-government groups which apparently induced the Ekiti State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Immam Babangida, to issue a statement banning political rallies in line with the Public Order Act.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had in a report indicted the governor and his deputy for alleged illegal deduction of local government fund, operation of foreign account, money laundering and illegal diversion of money meant for the poultry project. The deputy was said to have benefitted from the poultry project fund.