- Plots to manipulate Supreme Court Justices
By ADEWUMI ADEMIJU, Ado Ekiti
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has raised alarm, alleging that his predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, is desperate to retake the mantle of leadership and resume the Office of the Governor of Ekiti State. He said the former governor is plotting a return as the State Governor through the back-door by manipulating the Supreme Court to review its judgment of April 14, 2015, which validated the his election in the June 21, 2014 governorship poll. “If Fayemi is interested in governing Ekiti State again, he should seek power through the ballot box and not through the back door,” Fayose declared.
Speaking in Ado-Ekiti, Governor Fayose, who recalled his press briefing of January 5 this year, in which he raised similar alarm, said. “When we exposed them then, they pulled their punch; now, information at our disposal is that they are at it again.”
He alleged that Fayemi was already claiming that he had the backing of three newly appointed justices of the Supreme Court, the Department of State Services (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.
“We are not un mindful of the allegation made by a Supreme Court Judge, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, that the Minister of Transportation and former Governor of Rivers State, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, begged him to ensure that my election was set aside and another election ordered for his friend, Fayemi, to contest. Curiously, that grievous allegation was ignored by the powers that be.
“If Fayemi could try, using Amaechi to approach Supreme Court justices to procure black market judgment then, nothing stops him from trying to do same now that it is very clear that he can never achieve his ambition to be Ekiti Governor once again through the votes of the people and we urge Nigerians to take note,” the governor said.
Fayose said the renewed efforts were consequent upon the brick-walls he (Fayemi) met on his plan to contest the 2018 governorship election as APC candidate, adding that; “Having realised how difficult it will be for him to clinch APC ticket not to even talk of winning the election proper, so, Fayemi has opted to seek power through the back door.”
The governor said: “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 Thisday newspaper of 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 trounced an incumbent governor, the first being in 2003 when I defeated the sitting Alliance for Democracy (AD) governor, Otunba Niyi Adebayo.”
Speaking further, Governor Fayose said; “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’ residence 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.
“They are also aware of the position of the Supreme Court judgment on Andy Uba that there must be an end to litigation, a position also affirmed in the case of Prof. Steve Torkuma Ugba vs. Gebriel Torwua Suswam.
“Most importantly, in Segun Oni vs Fayemi, he (Fayemi) was a beneficiary of the suis generis (time bound) nature of election matter and the matter becoming functus officio once judgment is delivered by the final court as provided by the Electoral Act, and sane minds should wonder what magic he intends to perform by going to the Supreme Court on an election matter already determined at the final court, if not that he may have indeed gotten the assurance of the powers that be.
“One is, therefore, concerned that people who go about parading credentials as democrats will be so vicious that they won’t accept defeat, close to three years after they lost an election even in their own family house.
“We are therefore alerting Nigerians once again of this plot coming from Fayemi and his APC people who have proven over time that they are bad losers and will never respect the will of the people.
“The fact that I have more or less become the opposition last-man standing should not be made to become the reason an avoidable banana peel will be placed on the path of the Supreme Court and I urge our Supreme Court justices to be mindful of being rubbish ed by desperate politicians.
“If they are worried about my stance on national issues, they should do things differently in the interest of Nigerians that are hungry and suffering under the yoke of bad governance of the APC.
“However, let me state expressly that Fayemi and his collaborators will fail. They failed before, they will fail again. The harder they come against me, the harder they will fall.
“Another governorship election in Ekiti is around the corner and if Fayemi is a democrat, he should prepare to contest in that election rather than continue to shop for ‘Oluwole’ and ‘Jankara’ judgment that will return him to office through the back door.
“Fayemi and his backers in Abuja must be reminded that Ekiti people are united behind me and will fight him and his cohorts with the last blood in our veins. The power of the people is mightier than ‘Federal might’ If they dare Ekiti, they will meet their nemesis. If they do not retreat and put an end to their diabolical plots, Ekiti will be their Waterloo.
“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 so clearly. 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.”