Posted by By Kayode Fasua on
As the Ekiti state lawmakers make progress in the impeachment plot against Governor Ayodele Fayose, fresh facts have emerged on the root cause of the governor's trouble.
•2nd term connection •Lawmakers relocate to Lagos again
As the Ekiti state lawmakers make progress in the impeachment plot against Governor Ayodele Fayose, fresh facts have emerged on the root cause of the governor's trouble.
Over the weekend, impeccable sources revealed to Sunday Sun that President Olusegun Obasanjo, at a recent opportune encounter, called aside Fayose and advised him to drop his second term ambition, since he (the governor) had become too controversial.
But it was gathered that Fayose, apparently embarrassed, told the President point blank that such advice was too late, as he had plunged into the second term campaigns.
However, the President's advice to the governor may have been informed by mounting apprehension by a faction of leaders of ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the party might lose next year's gubernatorial elections in Ekiti if it fields Fayose.
Hanging on the governor's neck are allegations of graft from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, which is alleging Fayose and some officials of the state of looting funds set aside for the prosecution of the state's integrated poultry project.
Besides, some key traditional rulers and elite from the state who viewed him as stubborn and discourteous had rejected the 45-year-old governor, according to feelers obtained by the Presidency.
At a time, Chief Afe Babalola, SAN, raised an alarm that the governor was after his life. Similarly, the Ado-Ekiti monarch, the Ewi, Oba Rufus Adejugbe was alleged as having brushes with the governor. In Ekiti state, apart from Ikole, Ado-Ekiti records the highest turn out of voters, in any poll.
Sources also said what in the long run broke the Carmel's back and turned Fayose against Obasanjo, his acclaimed godfather, were ripples generated by the murder of PDP governorship aspirant, Dr Ayo Daramola. At a meeting of 25 governorship aspirants with the Inspector-General of Police, Sunday Ehindero, which Fayose did not attend, accusing fingers were being pointed at the governor by virtually all his political rivals, a development said to cause the Presidency a great deal of discomfiture.
' So, based on all these, the President called on the governor and advised him to forget second term, but the governor bluntly refused. And soon after that encounter, the EFCC called the house members again and what we now see is this impeachment of a thing", our source explained.
Last week, however, after an impeachment notice had been served on Fayose, President Obasanjo again reportedly advised him to resign or go clear himself with the EFCC but the governor, it was learnt, would not take any of the options.
Meanwhile, the Ekiti lawmakers who last Thursday stormed the state amid tight security and passed a resolution directing the state's Chief Judge, Kayode Bamisile, to constitute a seven-man impeachment panel, are reportedly back in Lagos. They are believed to lodge in a five-star hotel within the metropolis.
Fayose, according to government house sources in Ado-Ekit, in a last ditch move, has been reaching to prominent elite and traditional rulers in the state, allegedly to assist him in the Presidency. ' But they have all been turning down all overtures and appeals from Oga," the source lamented.
But on Friday, the governor took his case to the masses in the streets of Ado-Ekiti. Accompanied in a convoy by commercial motorcyclists, popularly called Okada riders, the governor, who himself drove a sports car, visited market places where he exchanged pleasantries with traders.
But the governor's men are already massing in support of their boss. Dipo Okunmuyide, press secretary to Abiodun Olujimi, the equally impeachment-bound deputy governor, said, ' As God lives, the governor and his deputy will survive this impeachment move." He said the lawmakers were guided by selfish interest as they did not put the interest of the state first, in their war against the governor".
Okunmuyide averred that the masses of Ekiti were not in support of the impeachment moves.