Posted by By CHRISTIAN ITA just back from Afao-Ekiti and Ado-Ekiti on
Suspended Ekiti State deputy governor, Mrs. Biodun Olujimi has put a lie to claims by the former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Friday Aderemi, that he was misled and stampeded into accepting the job of Acting Governor by his colleagues in the House of Assembly.
Suspended Ekiti State deputy governor, Mrs. Biodun Olujimi has put a lie to claims by the former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Friday Aderemi, that he was misled and stampeded into accepting the job of Acting Governor by his colleagues in the House of Assembly.
Aderemi who earlier described his ouster from the Government House following the declaration of a state of emergency by President Olusegun Obasanjo as 'not a big deal" told our sister publication, Saturday Sun, that the decision to assume power as Acting Governor was collectively taken.
While lamenting that his colleagues who have since gone underground have abandoned him to fate, Aderemi said: 'I am on my own now. I have not heard from anybody again, and this is supposed to be a collective struggle. Where are they now?"
But speaking exclusively with Sunday Sun in Ado-Ekiti, Olujimi said she has always known Aderemi to be a man driven by 'inordinate ambition" for power.
Of the twenty-six legislators earlier herded into detention enmasse by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over charges of bribery and corruption, twenty-four led by the Speaker had left the detention facility in Lagos and dramatically turned round to serve impeachment notice on Fayose.
According to Olujimi, everybody, including the suspended governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, regarded the former Speaker as some-one who wanted power at all cost and therefore, constituted a problem to everybody.
Her words: 'He is inordinately ambitious. From day one, he was a major opposition in the House even though he came through the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In fact, he was behind the removal of the first Speaker of the House.
'I remember that the day we agreed that he (Aderemi) should become Speaker, I stood up and said ‘I do not trust you sir but the future would judge whether I'm right or wrong'. I have been proved right."
Continuing, Olujimi said: ' We all knew that he was problematic but did not know it could be of this magnitude. We thought he just wanted power at all cost."
The decision to make him the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, she said, was therefore, done with the intention that it would assuage his unbridled quest for power.
'When he became the Speaker, we were all sure that that should have been enough for him because he was an ordinary member of the House. Leadership of the House is only a privilege and not a right. Everyone is first and foremost a member."
Olujimi said Aderemi could not be bothered if his action and that of the State Assembly led to the declaration of emergency rule if only to realize his dream of being the governor of the state 'even if for two days."
Contacted on phone while restricted to the Government House by a detachment of anti-riot policemen, Aderemi said he would rather not dwell on the past.
On the declaration of a State of Emergency by President Obasanjo, he said it was not a big deal.
Asked what next, he replied: 'I will go back to my business. I was not jobless before I came to the House of Assembly."
Meanwhile, even as a cloud of uncertainty hangs over the fate of their son whose whereabouts remains unknown, the people of Afao-Ekiti, Fayose's hometown, have shown solidarity with him.
While the Sole Administrator of the state, Major General Tunji Olurin (rt.), was being received into the state Thursday by some traditional rulers, the people of Afao, especially the youths, clustered at the entrance in groups discussing the situation. Some of those who spoke to Sunday Sun said they were waiting to give a rousing welcome to Hon. Taiwo Olatubosun.
Olatubosun was until the declaration of a state of emergency, the deputy speaker of the state House of Assembly. He was one of the two legislators who refused to sign the impeachment notice against his townman, Fayose, while in the detention camp of the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC) in Lagos.
It could not be ascertained as at press time whether Olatubosun had been let off by EFCC to meet the party waiting for him in Afao-Ekiti.
Carrying placards with inscriptions such as 'Omo gomina" (governor's child), some of the youths wore Ankara dresses embossed with Fayose's pictures.
Around the Saint David's church and the Model Primary School in Afao, giant pictures of Fayose on billboards were intact unlike in some other towns, including the state capital where they have been defaced.
A police orderly was sighted keeping sentry at the cream coloured private residence of the suspended governor even though it looked like there was no soul inside.
Fearing arrest, most of the Fayose's aides, like their boss have gone underground. Some of them who spoke with Sunday Sun via telephone, said they were forced to go underground because of the situation in the state, with some even fleeing Ekiti to neighbouring states.
Meanwhile, some close associates and aides of the former governor are still in EFCC detention.