Who wants Ekiti up in flames?

Steadily, actions of security agencies, especially the Department of State Services (DSS) and that of the Governor Ayodele Fayose-led administration have continued to heighten tension in Ekiti State, making many to wonder what benefit (s) both parties would gain should the state go up in flames.

Just on March 30, 2016, the crisis between the Fayose-led administration, the state House of Assembly on the one hand and the Federal Government as represented by the Department of State Services (DSS), on the other,  got messier when nine members of the Assembly fled the Ado-Ekiti, the state capital and headed to Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

The fleeing lawmakers, who addressed journalists at the NUJ press center, Iyaganku, Ibadan, alleged that their flight from Ado-Ekiti was occasioned by a tip-off that there was a plan by the Federal Government allegedly working in concert with the DSS to arrest some lawmakers in the state or alternatively, to infiltrate their ranks through monetary inducement amounting to one million dollars to impeach Fayose.

Prior to the flight of the nine lawmakers, the state just came out of the tension generated by the incarceration of a member of the Assembly, Hon. Akanni Afolabi by the DSS. Afolabi was arrested and clamped into detention on March 4, 2016.

The lawmaker, who the Fayose administration claimed in the morning of Thursday, March 17, 2016 to have died in the DSS custody was paraded alive before newsmen in Abuja in the evening of the same day. This doused the tension that built up in the state by his rumoured death. He regained freedom after 18 days in detention.

The allegation by the fleeing lawmakers heightens the cat and mouse relationship between the Fayose-led administration, the House of Assembly on one hand and the Federal Government on the other hand as represented by the DSS and the Police.

No doubt both parties have reasons for their actions so far, but fact is that if they continue on this war path, the state may hit the rocks with unimaginable consequences.

So, to avoid this, both parties must refrain from further actions capable of exacerbating tension in Ekiti State. After all, none of the parties including their sympathisers will be at peace should Ekiti go up in flames.