PDP Alleges Plot to Impeach Fayose *Warn against resort to brute force … Ekiti Assembly shut indefinitely Over ‘Strange’ Police Deployment

 

… Police: We deploy Police in Ekiti assembly for safety

… Fayemi’s lawyer accuses INEC of giving PDP  access to election materials

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of plot to impeach the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose.

The party warned APC that such an action would attract dire consequences.

In a statement issued by the national body of the party, PDP said the impeachment plot, which is being arranged in connivance with the police, is a recipe for crisis in the peaceful state.

The party said it is aware that the plot is a desperate bid by the APC to rush into the state Government House to remove and tamper with documents and evidence confirming the rigging of the July 14 governorship election, ahead of the sitting of the election tribunal.

"Having realised that there is no way their daylight robbery at the poll can stand in the court,  the APC is now employing all desperate means to subvert the course of Justice.

"This explains why a detachment of the police can be hurriedly deployed to besiege the Ekiti State House of Assembly complex last night without a formal request by the Speaker, the Clerk or the Sergeant-at-Arms, who is the chief security officer of the complex.

PDP further stated that any resort to underhand measures to impeach Fayose without the constitutionally required 2/3 of the members of the assembly at this time, “when the lawmakers are currently on their annual recess, will surely be resisted by our members.”

Going by the latest development in Ekiti State, the state assembly has raised the alarm over alleged deployment of heavily armed policemen to the premises of the state legislative complex without official request.

However, when journalists visited the assembly at 10.00 a.m., the policemen have been withdrawn and the complex was under lock and key.

The Speaker of the assembly, Hon Kola Oluwawole, who briefed the journalists in Ado Ekiti on Thursday, said the anti-riot policemen were deployed around 9 p.m. last Wednesday.

Oluwawole, in company of 17 other members, accused members who defected to All Progressives Congress (APC) prior to the July 14 governorship election as responsible for the act.

He called the attention of the public to the antics of the opposition and their alleged resolve to cause confusion in the assembly, saying there is no legislative duty in the assembly until members resume from recess on October 8, 2018.

The Speaker said: “This is strange in democracy for lawmakers to wake up and see unauthorised police deployment in the legislative arm of government. On Wednesday at about 9 p.m., police authorities deployed two detachments of heavily armed policemen to the premises of the assembly. This came to us as a shock because we are in recess, and such action was unwarranted.”

In its response, the state police command Thursday justified the deployment of armed policemen in the premises of Ekiti State House of Assembly, saying it was an act to guarantee safety of the lawmakers and staff of the assembly.

When contacted on the telephone to speak on the alarm raised by the assembly Speaker, Oluwawole, that there was a grand plot to cause confusion by some lawmakers in cahoots with the police, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Caleb Ikechukwu, said there was nothing wrong with the deployment.

According to him, "Anytime you see the deployment of policemen, it is to ensure the safety and security of that place and the people therein,” adding that there was no need for people to be curious about the deployment of security men in the quest to ensure the security of life and property, except for those who have some form of crime to hide.

Also, as the PDP and All Progressives Congress (APC) are preparing to square it up at the Election Petition Tribunal over the outcome of the July 14 governorship election in the state, lawyers to Ekiti State Governor-elect, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, have alleged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has granted the PDP lawyers unhindered access to electoral documents.

This, he alleged was done without recourse to other parties involved in the election, describing it as an alleged secret plot to compromise the impending litigation.

Fayemi polled a total of 197, 459 to defeat the candidate of the PDP, Professor Kolapo Olusola, who garnered 178, 121 votes. Olusola, who rejected the results declared by INEC, had threatened to challenge Fayemi’s victory in court.

Meanwhile, while accusing APC of plotting crisis all over the country and resorting to the use of harassment, intimidation and brute force against the people and democratic institutions, PDP warned that these dispositions of APC and its federal government portend grave danger for Nigeria.

“Now that the political and parliamentary establishment of the state House of Assembly has loudly declared that they do not require the services of the detachment of policemen,” PDP charged the APC to immediately withdraw their armed agents from the premises of the assembly.

PDP therefore asked the judiciary to be firm in standing for the truth on the state election and not be intimidated by the threats and pressure coming from the APC.