Wild Jubilation in Ekiti as Supreme Court Upholds Fayose’S Victory

Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital on Tuesday erupted with joy as residents trooped out in their hundreds to celebrate the victory of Mr. Ayo Fayose at the Supreme Court.

Scores of people, among them traders, Okada riders, students, vehicle drivers and party men and women of varied political divides abandoned work immedi­ately the judgment was delivered at about 10:am.

Checks also revealed that many of the residents had in the early hours of the day stayed glued to their television sets and radios to know the outcome of the judg­ment.

As soon as they get to know of the direction of the judgment, many of them began trooping into the streets, singing victory songs and dancing to various pro-Fayose songs while some others engaged in acrobatic displays.

Armed security men keeping surveillance on the streets of Ado-Ekiti had a hectic time controlling the crowd.

Their action was to be further aggravated when the governor ap­peared on the television to formal­ly invite all Ekiti people to come out and join him in a road proces­sion round the city, thanking God for humiliating all those seeking to use courts and impeachment to truncate his tenure.

Fayose, who later emerged from the Government House at about noon to personally lead the pro­cession, was confronted with an unprecedented crowd who were already waiting for him under the scorching sun, singing his praises.

The Governor who carried a placard bearing the inscription, “God, I thank you, Ekiti people, I thank you for your steadfast­ness” led the carnival-like proces­sion through busy routes such as Fajuyi-Okesha-Okeyinmi-Oba’s market, Old Garage, Ijigbo-Mug­bagba and Ajilosun streets among others.

Fayose caused a stir that fur­ther ignited people’s jubilation when he bought ten pieces of ba­nana worth only N100 from a road side hawker some of which he ate in the open, but instead paid N10,000 to the woman at a place near the Ewi of Ado’s palace.

While addressing the crowd, the governor said he was delight­ed that all legal tussles woven around his mandate as governor had died and been laid to rest by the Supreme Court.

He expressed gratitude to the Supreme Court Judges for keep­ing sacred, the mandate freely given him by the Ekiti people.

The governor called on those still nursing the ambition of get­ting him out of office at all cost, and by all means to have a re-think, as unfolding events had proven that it was God that put him in position of leadership.

During the period the proces­sion lasted, there were hours of heavy traffic hold-up on major streets of Ado-Ekiti as all avail­able space was occupied by the jubilant residents, thereby pre­venting free flow of human and vehicles.

In places like Ikere-Ekiti, home town of the Deputy Governor, Dr. Olusola Eleka and the governor’s home town at Afao-Ekiti among several others, similar jubilation took place.

Among those who accompa­nied the governor in the road show were a former Ekiti deputy governor and Senator-elect, Mrs. Abiodun Olujimi; wife of former Lagos governor and Senator-Elect, Mrs Fatimah Raji-Rasaki, Senator Bode Ola and all the six newly elected House of Represen­tatives members as well as all the 25 newly elected House of Assem­bly members.

In its judgement, the Supreme Court affirmed the election of Fayose as the winner of Ekiti state governorship election which was held on June 21, 2014.

The apex Court in Abuja dis­missed the appeal filed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the concurrent judgments of the Ekiti State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, Ekiti Division. The Supreme Court described the appeal as “lacking in merit.”

The appeal was filed by the APC even though its candidate at the election Kayode Fayemi conceded defeat.

In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, the apex court held that the impeach­ment of Fayose in 2006 was not a ground for his disqualification for the governorship race in 2014, par­ticularly, when the impeachment panel constituted against him was an “unconstitutional body” having been appointed by an Act­ing chief judge who was equally “unconstitutionally appointed” as Chief Judge of the state.

The court also said that even if Fayose was assumed to have been legally impeached, he was sup­posed to have been referred to a court of competent jurisdiction or the Code of Conduct Tribunal for conviction based on the in­dictment that he was involved in a N1.3 billion fraud case, among others.

Justice Ngwuta said that the allegation by the appellants that Governor Fayose forged his cer­tificate submitted to the Indepen­dent National Electoral Commis­sion (INEC) for the election was false as the appellants were un­able to prove the case.

On the issue of perjury, the apex court said the allegation also had not been proved before a com­petent court.