JUST IN: Fayose runs to CJN over new plot to sack him, fingers presidency and 2 ex-governors
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state has written to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen, alleging fresh plots by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to compromise a section of the judiciary and get him removed.
Fayose accused the presidency, Fayemi and Oni of being behind the plot
“The essence of all of these is to silence him as the voice of opposition in the country because he has bluntly rejected all overtures to him to defect into the ruling APC or stop talking,” he said accusing the minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Kayode Fayemi, and former governor of the state, Segun Oni as those behind the plot.
Fayose, who warned against any plot to destabilise Ekiti state, wondered how long it would take the APC and its collaborators to pursue their "clandestine agenda" of reversing an election they lost over 30 months ago and validated by the tribunal, appeal and the Supreme courts.
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In the letter Justice Onnoghen, Fayose alleged that “certain APC chieftains were again making subterranean moves to manipulate and compromise a section of the judiciary, particularly some judges, to get through the back door what they failed severally to achieve through the ballot box as well as in open court, even in matters already decided by the Supreme Court.
“At a recent meeting held in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, at which several stalwarts and chieftains of the All Progressives Congress were in attendance, two former governors of the sand members of the APC, namely Engr Segun Oni and Dr Kayode Fayemi, now a federal minister, boasted that there is no going back on the latest plans to subvert the will of the people of Ekiti freely given; wrest the governance of Ekiti from me at all costs before the expiration of my tenure in October 2018 through an orchestrated but dubious legal process; and thereby render the nugatory the sacred mandate of the people given to me openly and unequivocally when I won in all the 16 local governments of the state while the then incumbent Governor, Kayode Fayemi recorded zero.”
He said the presidency was actually behind the latest plot, but that the former was using Oni and Fayemi as their local arrow heads.
According to him, a concocted fresh suit is being rehashed and to be filed against him on the same old allegation that have been trashed all the way from the tribunal to the Supreme Court.
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“This time, the plotters of this judicial coup-de-tat plan to procure the services of a compromised or malleable judge to get self-serving ‘jankara’ and kangaroo judgment with the intention of having the Supreme Court reverse itself on the June 2014 Ekiti election.
“Segun Oni and Kayode Fayemi boastfully claimed that they have enlisted the assurances of Justice Okon Abang and one or two other judges in the concocted fresh suit, hinged on the report of a useless, senseless, and orchestrated military report not known to the electoral law,” he said in the letter to the CJN.
While urging the CJN to take “notice of judicial pronouncements by courts of concurrent jurisdiction as well as the scathing remarks of appellate courts on how the said Justice Okon Abang has been used in the past by anti-democratic forces to endanger democracy and engage in deleterious misapplication of justice”, Fayose prayed that the judiciary would not succumb to devious plots to undermine its independence and integrity.
“My Lord, you have a duty to ensure that no Judge under your watch is enlisted into this diabolical act by any rampaging anti-democratic elements.
“The embarrassing incidents currently playing out on our National Judicial horizon, with several judicial officers, including serving justices of the Supreme Court, enmeshed in simulated and orchestrated corruption scandals and indictments by agencies of the federal government because they had refused, at one time or the other, to serve the base interests of the ruling APC government in matters pending before their lordships, have kept us wondering whether the judiciary will succumb to these unwarranted harassments and intimidation meant to coerce and cower it into submission and make this very important and indispensable 'Third Estate of the Realm' subservient to the arbitrary wishes, whims, and caprices of the executive and political desperados,” he said.
Fayose described himself as a leading opposition figure in Nigeria that has been very critical of the anti-people policies of the federal government and its anti-democratic actions, which according to him, endanger democracy.
Arguing that democracy without virile opposition would turn into dictatorship as was currently being experienced, Fayose said he would continue to believe in the judiciary going by the open declaration of the CJN to defend its independence; maintain its integrity and make it strong and disciplined.
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The governor expressed confidence that Justice Onnoghen and the judiciary would not only refuse to fall for "the APC’s cheap and pedestrian blackmail" but would also resolutely and confidently defend its hallowed grounds.
At the time of this report, Oni, who is the deputy national chairman of the APC had reacted. He did not take his call and did not respond to a text message from NAIJ.com.
When contacted, Olayinka Oyebode, spokesperson to Dr Fayemi, simply said he woukd not want to dignify the governor who is fond of making allegations, many of which are a figment of his imagination.
"The Bible says: 'the wicked runneth when no man pursueth. It is in his style to make all manner of allegation; he is a serial petition writer," he added.
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