Court fails to halt Fayose’s impeachment

It was learnt that Fayose and his deputy, Kolapo Olusola took their
plight to a Federal High Court in Abuja to halt the All Progressives
Congress members of the state House of Assembly from impeaching them.
But they met a stumbling block as the judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed,
turned down their request and granted only the prayers contained in
their ex parte application relating to the service of the court
processes on the defendants.
The governor and his deputy, in the ex parte application, asked for an
interim order stopping the impeachment notice served on them and the
moves to remove them from office.
Rather than granting the prayers for interim injunction, Justice
Mohammed ordered the defendants in the suit, including the Speaker of
the House, Adewale Omirin, and the Chief Judge of the state, Justice
Ayodeji Daramola, to appear in his court on April 16.
They are to show cause why the order of interim injunctions being
sought by the plaintiffs should not be granted.
Apart from Omirin and Daramola, the other defendants in the suit are
the Inspector-General of Police, Suleiman Abba, and the Independent
National Electoral Commission.
The plaintiffs, apart from Fayose and Olusola, are the House of
Assembly and Olugbemi Dele, who was appointed by seven Peoples
Democratic Party lawmakers as their speaker.
Counsel for the plaintiffs, Ahmed Raji, had in the ex parte
application dated April 7 urged the court to set aside the impeachment
notice and restrain the defendants from taking any further steps in
that direction.
The lawyer argued that the impeachment notice signed by Omirin
amounted to impersonating the "incumbent speaker (Dele).''
He said, "The kernel of our complaint is that a former speaker of the
Ekiti State House of Assembly, in the person of the 1st respondent
(Omirin) is trying to impersonate the 1st plaintiff (Dele), who is the
current speaker of the parliament."
Part of the orders sought by the plaintiffs are: "An injunction
restraining the 1st defendant (Dele) and other errant members of the
2nd plaintiff (House of Assembly) from further taking any step or
engagining in unlawful activities relating to the impeachment of
Ayodele Fayose and Kolapo Olusola as governor and deputy governor of
Ekiti State.
"An interim order of injunction restraining the Chief Judge from
taking any step or action in relation to the request of the 1st
defendant (Omirin) for the purpose of appointing a panel of seven
persons to investigate the purported allegations of gross misconduct
against Fayose and Olusola.
"An interim order restraining the police from continuing to abet, give
cover, protection or lend credence to the activities of the 1st
defendant and other errant members of the 2nd plaintiff for self-help
in disruption of legislative proceedings in the House of Assembly.
"An interim order setting aside the purported notice of impeachment
and all the steps taken by the 1st defendant and other errant members
of the 2nd plaintiff in relation to the purported issuance and service
of the notice of impeachment for the purpose of commencing and
concluding impeachment proceedings against Fayose and Olusola."
The plaintiffs had urged the court to grant the prayers and make the
interim injunctions to subsist pending the determination of their
motion on notice for interlocutory injunctions seeking the same set of
prayers.
Raji urged the court to grant the prayers "in the interest of justice,
public order, peace and safety of the people of the state."
But the judge rather than granting the interim injunctions ordered
the parties to appear in court to convince him on why the plaintiffs'
prayers should not be granted.
Justice Mohammed ruled, "The order is hereby made directing the 1st to
4th defendants (Omirin, IG , INEC and Ekiti CJ) to appear before this
court on April 16, 2015 and show cause why the interim order sought by
the plaintiffs via an ex parte motion dated April 7, 2015 should not
be made by this court."
The court granted leave to serve Omirin and Justice Daramola, who
reside in Ekiti State, outside jurisdiction.
It also ordered that Omirin and the CJ be served through
advertisement in a national newspaper.
It also made a separate order that the CJ be served with processes of
court through the office of the Chief Registrar of of the Ekiti State
High Court.
In their main suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/302/2015, the plaintiffs are
seeking nine prayers among which is "an order setting aside the
purported notice of impeachment and all steps taken by the 1st
defendant (Omirin) with other errant members of the 2nd plaintiff in
relation to the purported issuance and service of the said notice of
impeachment for the purpose of commencing and concluding the
impeachment proceedings against Fayose and Olusola, except and
until there is absolute compliance with provisions of section 36(1)
and section 188(1), (2), (3) and (4) of the 1999 Constitution (as
amended)."
The move by the APC lawmakers to sack Fayose and Olusola had led to
mayhem in parts of the state on Monday and Tuesday.
During protests on Tuesday by Fayose supporters, a man, Modupe Olaiya,
was shot dead in Efon Alaaye.
Olaiya's death became a subject of controversy with Fayose accusing
the APC lawmakers being culpable in a in a petition he sent to the IG.
"The APC lawmakers were escorted by five fully armed riot policemen,
who I later discovered were brought from MOPOL 20 in Lagos State,"
he added.
He listed the mobile policemen as Sgt Oyelakin Zacchaeus (F/No
386073), Cpl Adewuya Clement (F/No 396903), Cpl James Ogunji (F/No
386976), Cpl Ebute Michael (F/No 343469) and Cpl. Ibrahim Zock (F/No
235510).
Fayose urged Abbah to investigate the role of the policemen in the whole saga.
He said, "To my surprise, instead of the police arresting the
lawmakers, they were allowed to return to Osogbo, Osun State where
they came from.
"As I write, the entire Efon Alaaye community is tense, with the
people expecting justice to prevail on the gruesome murder of Modupe
Olaiya.
"It is therefore on this note, and most importantly, the need to
restore the confidence of the people in the police that I implore that
you use your good offices to order a thorough investigation into the
murder.
"It is also important that the involvement of the above listed mobile
policemen is ascertained as they were not from Ekiti State and were
not deployed to escort the lawmakers to the state by the state
police command."
Olaiya's mother, Apeke, told journalists in company with her
daughter-in-law, Yinka, that one of the lawmakers killed her son.
She said, "It (killing) happened at Fabo, at Efon Junction on the way
to Ijebu-Ijesha.
"They said he (lawmaker) was coming with some OPC (Odua Peoples
Congress) members from Lagos and they made a detour in Osun State, but
they were coming to Ekiti through Ijebu-Ijesha.
"What I learnt was that when the convoy arrived at Fabo Junction,
they opened fire on the protesters who had mounted a roadblock,
claiming that that Efon people were heady and stubborn.
"I was told that my son had hidden behind a car when everyone else had
scampered to safety. He was shot in the back while crawling out of
danger to the bush.
"The vehicle with which he was being taken to the hospital ran out of
fuel on the way, they continued with a motorcycle, which also ran out
of fuel at Adagba farm settlement. They eventually got another
motorcycle with which they got him to Odufunke Hospital, where the
doctor had to call the police to ascertain his identity, having been
brought as a gunshot victim.
"While all these were going on, my son had started to foam from the
mouth and while they were trying to give him blood, he gave up the
ghost. His pregnant wife, Yinka, has two children. I don't know what
to do now. Olaiya is my fourth child and had been the sponsor of the
family."
She spoke at the Government House in Ado Ekiti.
But the APC lawmakers accused the governor of inducing the mother and
other family members of the deceased to make the claim.
According to them, Olaiya was felled by soldiers' bullets at Efon Alaaye.
"We have confirmed that Fayose gave the woman huge sum of money and
asked her to start crying, rolling on the floor with persistent
mentioning of Hon. Ogundele as the one who shot the boy," they said in
a statement by Omirin's Special Adviser, Media, Wole Olujobi.
The statement added, "Modupe Olaiya was actually killed by security
agents while thugs armed with guns and other dangerous weapons massed
up at the Itawure security checkpoint violently protesting and
blocking the route through which the 19 APC lawmakers were coming to
Ado Ekiti.
"Residents of Efon Alaaye have confirmed that the incident happened
long before the lawmakers arrived at the checkpoint when the thugs
became unruly and started shooting at the security agents.
"In the exchange of gunfire, Olaiya was felled and taken to the
morgue. His body was later shown to residents by government officials
alleging that Ogundele, who was nowhere near the scene, was
implicated.
"The lawmakers were not even aware of the incident because they were
still far away from the spot when the incident happened. So, it will
be mischievous if the lawmakers are linked with the incident.
"Nigerians should recall that the Ekiti State High Court once
dismissed Fayose as an incorrigible liar and peddler of mischief.
Nigerians should therefore note the deceit involved in this show of
shame. Is it the family of the deceased that should visit the governor
in his office or the governor that should visit them to sympathise
with them in their house?
This is another propaganda typical of Fayose's mischief to get at the
opposition. What Fayose is doing is to stoke crisis that will lead to
the arrest of Hon. Ogundele so that he will not be around on Saturday
for the House of Assembly poll in which the man is seeking
re-election.
"This is another stunt from a man who trades and trafficks in lies and
mischief as essential instrument of governance."
No plan to shift Ekiti election–INEC
Meanwhile, INEC has said that there is no plan to postpone Saturday's
election in Ekiti State despite the crisis rocking there.
It said the crisis had nothing to do with the commission's preparation
for the election.
The Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of the commission, Kayode
Idowu, disclosed this in an interview with a source in Abuja on
Wednesday.
Idowu said, "INEC is not involved in the crisis going on in the state
and we have no plan to shift the election
Firstclassnewsline.net