Stop Inciting Ekiti People into Violence, APC Lawmakers Tell Fayose

The 19 All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers in the Ekiti State House of Assembly have reacted to the Sunday inciting broadcast by ‎Governor Ayodele Fayose urging Ekiti people to rise against the lawmakers who he alleged were planning to resume their legislative duties on Monday (today).

A statement by Special Adviser on Media to Speaker Adewale Omirin, Wole Olujobi, said the governor had in his broadcast demonstrated that he was never committed to the peace he preached barely 24 hours before his inciting broadcast.

“How do you reconcile this inciting broadcast with a plea he made for peace not quite 24 hours earlier, which Ekiti people and indeed Nigerians thought was a good move by the governor to thaw the frozen relationship between him and the lawmakers?

This is a confirmation of what Dr Omirin said in his Sunday Punch interview that the governor can’t be trusted in any peace move,” the statement said.

It expressed regrets over failure of the governor to embrace the homily by the clergyman in his thanksgiving service where he was admonished to embrace peace with APC lawmakers by paying their entitlements and seek genuine reconciliation to move the state forward.
“It is shocking that the governor, who refused to make any remark or commitment during the church servcie after the man of God appealed to him to embrace peace, could go on air few minutes after the church service to start inciting workers, traders, okada riders and artisans‎ to defend him with their last drop of blood.

“As if his inciting live broadcast was not enough, Ekiti people were shocked when ‎a public service announcement started running intermittently on the state media urging okada riders to look out for strange faces across the state and attack them because they are thugs that are being imported by APC lawmakers. They are also to converge on the House of Assembly as early as 6am on Monday to prevent the lawmakers from performing their legal duties,” the statement added.

Stressing that they were not planning any invasion of the state with thugs, the lawmakers called the attention of Nigerians to the unlawful acts of the governor in his desperate move to ensure that the lawmakers are rendered ineffective in the discharge of their lawful duties.

“We have said umpteenth time that the governor would be given a fair hearing. He has nothing to fear. He should continue to have faith in the Nigerian Constitution. He had just won a constitutional matter at the Supreme Court. We will apply the same law that the court used to give him victory. He is an Ekiti man. We don’t hope to punish him unjustly,” the statement added.

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It stressed that Fayose could not benefit from the law and at the same time prevent other elected representatives of the people from enjoying the same benefit.

“The best he and his deputy can do is to appear before the panel to be set up by the CJ and defend themselves. This is the rule of law which he has benefited from and there should not be an exception to this,” the statement added.