Will Fayose Be Sworn In?
The baton of state affairs in Ekiti is supposed to change hands between Fayemi and Fayose on 16 October. However, as expected, a lot of politics and intrigues have been playing out over the character of Fayose since his victory at the polls. While some residents and a section of Nigerians are of the view that he lacks the integrity to be made the governor, others argue that any attempt to stop him from assuming the position would be an affront on democracy.

•Akpabio: Describes Fayose as the nucleous through which PDP would breathe its life on South-West

On 23 May, just after the PDP endorsed him as the party’s torchbearer for the governorship election, the Ekiti socio-cultural group e-Eleven instituted a legal suit challenging Fayose’s eligibility as a result of the question mark put on his integrity. Pegging the suit on an argument that Fayose contested in error, the e-Eleven argued that while filling the ‘Form INEC CF001’, Fayose claimed he had never at a time been indicted of fraud by a judicial commission or any administrative panel of inquiry, but that this alone questioned his integrity to serve the people of his state. The group backed its claim with a list of indictments on Fayose as well as his impeachment by the state House of Assembly in 2006 after he was found guilty by a panel set up by the House to investigate his activities in office.

In the suit instituted at the High Court in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, and which had the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as defendants, the e-Eleven said Fayose, with his denial, went against sections 177 and 182 (1) (d-e) of the Constitution  (as amended) and sections 31 and 87 of the Electoral Act of the country. While Section 182 (1) (d-e) stipulates that no person shall be qualified for election to the office of governor of a state, if he is under a sentence of death imposed by any competent court of law or tribunal in Nigeria or a sentence of imprisonment for any offence involving dishonesty or fraud; or within a period of less than ten years before the date of election to the office of governor of a state he has been convicted and sentenced for an offence involving dishonesty or he has been found guilty of the Code of Conduct, Section 31 (4-6) of the Electoral Act stipulates that one could apply to the INEC for a copy of nomination form, affidavit and any other document submitted by a candidate at an election and the commission shall, upon the payment of a prescribed fee, issue such person with a certified copy of the document within 14 days.

The law further gives an opportunity for anyone who thinks any information given by a candidate in the affidavit or any document submitted by the candidate is false to head for the High Court of a State or Federal High Court “against such person seeking a declaration that the information contained in the affidavit is false. If the Court determines that any of the information contained in the affidavit or any document submitted by the candidate is false, the Court shall issue an order disqualifying the candidate from contesting the election”.

The PDP, on its own, sees a grand ploy by the group in collaboration with the APC to create a crisis of succession in the state following the loss recorded by the APC at the election. Olisa Metuh, in a statement on behalf of the party, said the APC was planning to influence the judiciary in order to stop the inauguration of Ayo Fayose as governor of Ekiti State, adding that this would amount to a slap on the face of the people of Ekiti if the inauguration of Fayose was stopped. “In the past two weeks, we have witnessed series of lies, propaganda, threats and blackmail by the APC in their desperate bid to truncate the wish of the people. This desperate party has gone notches up in this  awkward quest for power by inciting violence and outlandishly calling for the arrest of the state governor-elect. After losing roundly in an election widely acclaimed as one of the most credible in our recent history as a nation, the APC in its desperation for power has shamelessly designed a heinous plot to compromise certain judicial officers in order to stop the inauguration of Mr. Ayo Fayose as the democratically elected governor of Ekiti State,” Metuh said insisting that the APC sought to remain in power in the state through any means it deems fit. “We are indeed taken aback that the same Governor Fayemi who was among the first Nigerians to congratulate the governor-elect, an action that earned him very wide commendation, would now allow himself to be a tool in the hands of politicians who are desperate to truncate democracy and  destroy the unity of his state,” he said.

•Metuh: APC wants to truncate people’s wish

Apart from the PDP, one individual who has declared that Fayose must be sworn into office on 16 October is David Mark, President of the Senate, who has declared that nothing would stop the inauguration of his party man as governor of the state when the time comes. Also, Mr. Lere Olayinka, media aide to Fayose, while defending the governor-elect, noted that the e-Eleven had been acting as a mafia group in the state and giving every governor of the state trouble since 1999. The only governor that had enjoyed the group, according to him, was Fayemi and this is simply because the governor is part of them. “They would not allow the governors to work, because of their selfish interest. They congratulated Fayose after the election, I mean, their president. But to now turn around to obtain one black market judgment, that Ekiti people will not accept,” he declared.

•Mark: Nothing will stop Fayose’s inauguration

Babafemi Ojudu, the senator representing Ekiti Central in the National Assembly, does not see anything wrong in taking to the court against Fayose and how that could mean that the party was planning to frustrate the inauguration of the governor-elect. “It is not true that the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State is plotting to frustrate the inauguration of Fayose on October 16,” he said in response to the allegation from the PDP. “What APC had done is to go to the tribunal to challenge the election of Fayose and the court was about to sit when Fayose invaded the court with his thugs and disrupted it. The e-11 had gone to court since May 23 to challenge the qualification of Fayose to contest the election. But there was a strike, and the court later went on vacation; and the suit suffered some setbacks, so they are just hearing it now. Why is the PDP in Ekiti blaming its misfortune on other people? It is taken that when anybody is aggrieved, the place to resolve it is the court and not through self help. The e-Eleven went to court, and the APC went to court.”