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PRESS RELEASE
Position of the Action Group Caucus of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) on the April 14 Supreme Court Judgment
We the Action Group, (AG) caucus of the APC in Ekiti State affirms that we have respect for the courts and cherish the grundnorm that establishes the Supreme Court as the apex jurisdiction on all legal disputes.
In line with our right to freedom of speech, the Action Group caucus wishes to express our shock at the position of the Supreme Court and also to draw the attention of the Nigerian public and the international community to what we consider as very serious flaws in the pronouncement of the Supreme Court.
We observe that the judgment came even in the face of overwhelming evidence that raises fundamental questions on Mr Ayodele Fayose’s eligibility and the evident plots, intrigues and fraudulent conspiracies of a section of the Nigerian security operatives which heralded his emergence after the June 21, 2014 gubernatorial election against all known democratic cultures.
We are worried about Mr Fayose’s several other obvious gross misconducts and nasty violations of not only the sacred norms of the Nigerian constitution, but also the agelong values held in the highest esteem by Ekiti people. Here are the other critical issues that will continue to prick the conscience of all rational, democratic and right thinking people in Nigeria and across the world:
1) As we speak and for six months running, 19 lawmakers duly elected by Ekiti people have been locked out by the governor, preventing them from sitting, with the State House of Assembly surrounded by armed policemen and armed thugs, while the inner chamber has been taken over by miscreants who literally live inside the hollow chamber with their cudgels and hemp.
2) As at today, Mr Fayose has passed the state budgets, appointed commissioners and continues to run legislative functions with only 7 out of the 26 elected lawmakers.
3) The decision to affirm his authority on our silent but grieving people will continue to attract public disdain and outrage, more so, given the naked audio evidence provided by Capt Sagir Koli which gave a graphic account of how the June 21, 2014 election was manipulated in favour of Mr Fayose, who by share doling out of state funds to poor, impoverished and vulnerable voters, snatching of ballot papers, gun-toting and fear-inducing scheming, backed by armed officials, succeeded in recording the same odious feat during the last two elections.
4) We recall that Mr Fayose in the full glare of the world did what only Adolf Hitler or Idi Amin could have done by supervising the merciless beating up of a judge and through a combination of subterfuge, violence and brigandage, has prevented the Ekiti State courts from sitting in a case of illegibility preferred against him by the E-11.
5) We are perplexed that up till now non of the culprits in the invasion of the courts and the assault on the judges has been apprehended and brought to book as ordered by the National Judicial Council ( NJC). The NJC, in spite of this odious affront on the judiciary has remained silent thus giving a tacit support for Fayose’s brigandage.
6) The state of affairs in Ekiti under Mr Fayose remains barbaric, criminal, anti-culture, primitive and shocking. This only reminds Ekiti people of the indignity, spineless corruption, rot, destruction of the sacrosanct reputation of the judiciary and other traumatic experiences the Federal Government under the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) has subjected Nigerians into in the past 16 years of misrule which seem to have destroyed almost every valuable fabric of the society and unfortunately too, the judiciary inclusive. It is our considered opinion, that Mr Fayose is only an outstanding beneficiary of this decomposing state mechanism.
7) As things stand in Ekiti today there is no democracy as prescribed by the nation’s constitution. The courts have been permanently shut down since Fayose came to power and this clearly excludes the judiciary, a major arm of government from participating in governance. The legislature has been beheaded by him by having seven members of the house of assembly take decisions over the house and thereby excluding majority members against the provision and intent of the law.
8) Therefore what we have in Ekiti today is a dictatorship of one man and it appears that he has excised Ekiti State from the rest of the country and suspended the Nigerian constitution and all the state apparatus that should call him to order, are looking on.
9) The truth is that Mr Fayose is instinctively violent. Nigerians are witnesses to the violent manner he conducted the last elections in the state. Contrary to the culture of Nigerians, he openly wished the then Presidential aspirant, now President-elect, General Mohammadu Buhari death. This is apart from his snatching of ballot boxes, chasing away leaders of the opposition in the state and open trading of cash for votes in the last elections.
8) It is instructive that Mr Fayose has responded to the Supreme Court judgment with excitement and offer of reconciliation to the opposition. This is an old trick that we have seen over and over again. It should be noted that while he was offering the mischievous olive branch, members of the APC were being harassed with guns and cutlasses at Emure and Ayetoro by his thugs.
7) We call on Ekiti people to remain calm even in the face of dashed hope and aspirations. Our confidence remains firm and unshaken in the belief that by the power of the Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth and mover of all things, who is more Supreme than any court on earth, our people will be free from torment and the unending misery under Mr Fayose’s jackboots, which though, gives a false semblance of democratic acceptance by the generality of our helpless and long suffering people. We know that very soon, the Day of Judgment will come for the wicked and the unrighteous.
Signed:
APC Action Group caucus, Ekiti State.
Truth is sacred
Adeleye Akintola
