Pupils in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti state capital, were sent back home
Monday morning and civil servants stayed away from the State Secretariat
for fear of being caught in a potential outbreak of violence following
the call by Governor Ayodele Fayose to Okada riders and drivers to rise
up and help him protect his mandate.
Nineteen lawmakers of the All Progressives Congress have initiated
impeachment proceedings against him and have requested the state chief
judge to raise a panel to probe the governor.
A resident of the city, who asked not to be named for fear of his
safety, told PREMIUM TIMES that although vehicular movements were not
restricted in Ado-Ekiti, there were minimal commercial activities in the
town as a large group of Mr Fayose’s supporters from three transport
unions in the states gathered at the House of Assembly Complex in
anticipation that the APC lawmakers would attempt to meet there.
“I took my children to school this morning and I was told to take
them back home. In fact, I saw about six teachers at the gate of a
public school close to my children’s school sending pupils home,” he
said.
“Most of the ministries are very close to the House of Assembly
Complex; most of the civil servants did not come to work because of the
tension. I’ve called several civil servants working there and they said
there was no life along the secretariat road. They told me that they
fear that violence might occur and that it is better they stay at home,”
he added.
The transporters were responding to calls by Mr Fayose on the
state-owned television station, Ekiti State Television for Okada riders
and drivers to mobilise and defend the mandate they gave the governor.
“My mandate is your mandate and you must defend it,” said Mr Fayose in a live broadcast on Ekiti State Television on Sunday.
Soon after the governor’s appeal, the state television intermittently
run paid advert by the Okada Riders Association, the National Union of
Road Transport workers (NUTRW) and the Road Transport Workers
Association of Nigeria (RTWAN) calling on their members to gather at the
House of Assembly and help protect the governor’s mandate with “the
last drop of their blood”.
Meanwhile, Lere Olayinka, Media aide to Mr Fayose, has denied that
the governor is instigating public disturbances and inciting people to
attack the APC lawmakers. In an email to PREMIUM TIMES, he said claims
suggesting so are false.
He said the people on their own volition have risen up to defend their mandate.
“The reality in Ekiti State today is that the people are rising up to
defend their mandate and if Omirin and his APC lawmakers are not
working against the people’s mandate, they have nothing to fear. The
governor cannot stop the people who voted for him from protecting their
mandate,” he said.
He said instead of pursuing the “illegal “ impeachment against the
governor, the APC and its lawmakers should ask themselves what they did
to offend the people of Ekiti.
He said the result of the March 28 and April 11 elections, where the
governor’s party, the Peoples Democratic Party, won all elective
positions in the state clearly showed that the Ekiti people do not want
anything to do with the party or its lawmakers.
He also blamed Ekiti elites staying in Lagos, Ibadan and Abuja for instigating the plot to impeach the governor.
“Some of these people who called themselves elites were in the
comfort of their bedrooms in Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja and abroad when okada
riders, traders, drivers, workers, artisans, students and all the common
people of Ekiti stayed in the sun and rain to cast their votes for
Governor Fayose.
“So because Fayose wants peace and he is committed to it, those who
gave him the mandate to govern them for four years should not defend
their mandate if it is being threatened by a few people who they have
rejected with their votes?
“Instead of making noise in the media, the APC lawmakers, including
Omirin and those deceiving him with the prophesy of him becoming acting
governor of Ekiti State, should face the reality of their total
rejection by Ekiti people and stop running from Idanre to Lagos, Osogbo
and Abuja trying to uproot the tree planted by the people of Ekiti.”
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