Fayemi planning judicial coup in Ekiti, Fayose alleges

Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state has alleged that his predecessor in office and current Minister Mines and Steel Development, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, in‎ concert with leaders and stalwarts of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti and Abuja, has concluded plans to return to power through the backdoor.

This, Fayose said, would be actualized “by subverting the will of the Ekiti people and truncate democracy through devious plans of enlisting a section of the judiciary to revisit the 2014 governorship election in the state and remove me from office.”

Fayose who cried out at a press conference in Ado Ekiti stated: “When we exposed them then, they pulled their punch; now, information at our disposal is that they are at it again.”

According him, “in the last few days, Fayemi has been boasting that the Supreme Court will be made to review its judgment of April 14, 2015, which validated my election. This was an election that was adjudged free, fair, and credible by both local and international observers, including the United States government.”

The visibly troubled governor alleged that the “renewed efforts are consequent upon the brick-walls he (Fayemi) has met on his plan to contest the 2018 governorship election as APC candidate.

“Having realised how difficult it will be for him to clinch APC ticket not to even talk of winning the election proper, Fayemi has opted to seek power through the backdoor, claiming that he already has the backing of three newly appointed justices of the Supreme Court, the DSS and other top organs of the federal government to force the Supreme Court to review its judgment on the Ekiti State 2014 governorship election.

“Fayemi and his cohorts are even boasting that they are only putting pressure on the new Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen to join them in the devilish plot.

“It was in furtherance to this plot and the assurances that he may have gotten that Fayemi said in an interview published in a national daily Sunday, March 26, 2017 that rather than joining a ‘so-called governorship race’, his preoccupation was to get to the root of what actually transpired in Ekiti on June 21, 2014, going further to state that ‘it is too early to start talking about 2018 governorship race when there is still unfinished business.’

“The question is; what unfinished business was he talking about in an election that he lost clearly? What unfinished business does Fayemi have with an election that I won fair and square, defeating him in all the 16 local governments of the state, including his home town of Isan-Ekiti?

“Mind you, that June 2014 election was the second time I would be trouncing an incumbent governor, the first being in 2003 when I defeated the sitting Alliance for Democracy (AD) governor, Otunba Niyi Adebayo.

“As I address you today, there is credible information that Fayemi has provided fund for the filing of the matter at the Supreme Court and he has assured his loyalists in the APC in Ekiti State that the Presidency and a section of the judiciary, especially the newly appointed Supreme Court justices are in total support of the plot to remove me at all cost.

“It is however my advice that the Supreme Court and indeed the entire judiciary should be mindful of this banana peel coming from the same people who orchestrated the DSS invasion of judges residences in the night just because they refused to assist them to perpetrate injustice.

“This is more so that Fayemi and his collaborators are not unaware that Order 8, Rule 16 of the Supreme Court expressly stated that the court shall not review its judgment once giving, except there was a clerical mistake or slip.

“Finally, let me reiterate that I have an unflinching confidence that the Supreme Court will not debase itself. On the 2014 Ekiti governorship election, the apex court has spoken and it has spoken soclearly.

Day-dreamers like Fayemi can continue to hallucinate. As for me and the Ekiti people, our focus is on the 2018 governorship election. By God’s grace and the solid support and backing of Ekiti people, we will again give Fayemi and his political camp 16 – 0,” Fayose added.