APC, Fayemi lack moral rights to oppose Jega’s removal – Fayose
Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has said that the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, do not have the moral rights to oppose any move to remove the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega.
Speaking through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, he noted that: “Asking Jega to go on his mandatory terminal leave is not the same as sacking him; more so that his tenure would lapse in June and he is entitled to three months terminal leave.”
Fayose said the APC must tell Nigerians what had changed in Jega’s handling of elections, since the party was led by General Muhammadu Buhari, Senator Bola Tinubu and others on a street protest, in Abuja, on November 28, 2013, to call for the sack of the INEC Chairman and the entire management of the electoral commission after the Anambra State Governorship election.
The governor said: “Nigerians must ask Buhari, Tinubu and other APC leaders, who led street protest against Jega, carrying placards with inscriptions such as; ‘INEC not fit to conduct 2015 election,’ ‘2015, no hope with Jega,’ what has changed about Jega’s credibility.
“Has the same Jega that they said cannot conduct the 2015 elections seized from being a bad person?
“APC lost the Anambra election and took to the streets, in Abuja, calling for Jega’s head. Is the INEC boss now doing their bidding, because the APC will only stand against any individual or organisation that refused to be corrupted?
“No doubt, the hullaballoo of the APC and its agents concerning Jega’s position is suspect.”
On Fayemi’s position, Fayose said: “It is laughable that the same Fayemi who, as Ekiti State governor, sacked the Vice-Chancellor and two Deputy Vice-Chancellors of the State University, as well as Chairmen and members of statutory commissions, is the one sermonising about legality or otherwise of asking Jega to proceed on terminal leave.”
“Fayemi, as governor, sacked democratically-elected Local Council chairmen and councilors. He sacked the Ekiti State University Vice Chancellor, Prof Dipo Kolawole via radio announcement, and dissolved statutory boards and commissions. Even when courts ruled that his actions were illegal and unconstitutional, he refused to reinstate them.
“Isn’t it shameful and hypocritical that the same Fayemi is the one saying his party was fighting against the move to remove Jega, because it amounted to a breach of the law?”